Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, this #1 New York Times bestseller chronicles a young slave’s adventures as she makes a desperate bid for freedom in the antebellum South. The basis for the acclaimed original Amazon Prime Video series directed by Barry Jenkins.Cora is a slave on a cotton plantation in Georgia. An outcast even among her fellow Africans, she is on the cusp … fellow Africans, she is on the cusp of womanhood—where greater pain awaits. And so when Caesar, a slave who has recently arrived from Virginia, urges her to join him on the Underground Railroad, she seizes the opportunity and escapes with him.
In Colson Whitehead’s ingenious conception, the Underground Railroad is no mere metaphor: engineers and conductors operate a secret network of actual tracks and tunnels beneath the Southern soil. Cora embarks on a harrowing flight from one state to the next, encountering, like Gulliver, strange yet familiar iterations of her own world at each stop.
As Whitehead brilliantly re-creates the terrors of the antebellum era, he weaves in the saga of our nation, from the brutal abduction of Africans to the unfulfilled promises of the present day. The Underground Railroad is both the gripping tale of one woman’s will to escape the horrors of bondage—and a powerful meditation on the history we all share.
Look for Colson Whitehead’s new novel, Harlem Shuffle!
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Makes me so ashamed of the behavior of our countrymen and women.
The cruelty of the general white public toward the Black community was
beyond my comprehension. We have not come so far in the 150plus years we still have so much bigotry.
The writing is excellent the story compelling
Remarkable writing which turned the difficult and dangerous job of finding safety for slaves before and during the Civil War, into a modern yet believable story. Mr. Colson deserved the Man Booker for it and I look forward to reading more by him.
A very moving book story about the slaves and their struggles in the south. A must read.
New read!
Just finished. Good book with some interesting twists that were totally unexpected.
Cora is a slave on a cotton plantation in Georgia. Life is hellish for all slaves, but Cora is an outcast even among her fellow Africans, and she is coming into womanhood; even greater pain awaits. Caesar, a recent arrival from Virginia, tells her of the Underground Railroad and they plot their escape. Like Gulliver, Cora encounters different worlds on each leg of her journey.
I am afraid that I disagree with the high praise that has been given to this book. I found it ponderous, self-serving, and replete with self-serving modernity. I like modern fiction, but…This book was totally unenjoyable to me. The writing was not worthy of all the praise it has been getting, the story is disjointed (whether intentional or not). I think this has become a “bandwagon book” with many who have simply jumped on board for the ride and to ooh and ah with others.
When will we once again praise a book for its style, its universality, its prescience, its language, its tone, its essence, rather than it political correctness. I apologize, but I failed to see the greatness in this title.
The author takes the reader on a action-packed, unpredictable journey.
A passionate, gritty, and bloody story of our country’s deepest and darkest sins: slavery and genocide. Immerse yourself in Colson Whitehead’s lyrical prose. You will fall under the spell of the language.
“And America, too, is a delusion, the grandest one of all. The white race believes—believes with all its heart—that it is their right to take the land. To kill the Indians. Make war. Enslave their brothers. This nation shouldn’t exist, if there is any justice in the world, for its foundations are murder, theft, and cruelty. Yet here we are.”
“The word we. We are not one people but many different people. How can one person speak for this great, beautiful race—which is not one race but many, with a million desires and hopes and wishes for ourselves and our children?”
“For we are Africans in America. Something new in the history of the world, without models for what we will become.”
I read this book at a book club and I could not put it down. It is great and I would read it again.
I am an avid reader, whose favorite genre is historical fiction. I chose to read this book because it was billed as historical fiction ( fiction for sure), a Pulitzer prize winner and was reviewed on a national news show. I was soooo disappointed. I expect a book of historical fiction to stick to the facts of history, this book does not. It portrays the Underground Railroad as an actual railroad, what? The writing was often disjointed and at times lacked transitions. Occasionally capital letters and periods were used when there was no sentence, just a random statement of perhaps a couple of nouns and a conjunction. The author’s use of words didn’t encourage me to read nor hold my attention in fact it sometimes left me confused. I question why this was a prize winning book.
A fascinating speculative look at one woman’s journey on the Underground Railroad. This one is cool because he envisions it as an ACTUAL railroad that’s underground moving people. Pretty interesting read.
Even though this is a work of fiction, it’s like stepping back in history. The author does an incredible job of taking you back in history to the pre-civil war era. Even if you know the history as most of us do, you’re reading from the perspective of the slave. As I rooted for Cora to escape slavery, it soon becomes clear that just escaping bondage gives her a certain amount of freedom, but she’s still surrounded by prejudice and hatred sometimes subtle, sometimes obvious. I thought it was an interesting twist to think that there was actually a train that ran underground. This was an amazing book and I highly recommend it.
This was a great truth that needed to be told.
Not an easy read, but Whitehead’s writing is always flawless.
I know some Underground Railroad stops and this book paints a different picture about the riders. It is a serious book about the anguish of Black folk in the USA.
Based on a true story.
A good, if confusing story. Don’t read it for the history, because the history is made up.
Read 10.28.2018
WOW.
I can totally see why this won the Pulitzer and the National Book Award; what an amazing book. Horrifying and upsetting and thought-provoking, but amazing nonetheless. The story of Cora and her journey from Georgia to the North [and her time on the plantation before she leaves] is fraught with terror and unbelief and courage. A lot of courage. So many times while I was reading this, I was reminded of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” and the courage and perseverance that is in that book. So much of that is present in The Underground Railroad as well. Cora is an excellent character and the people that flit in and out of her life, good and bad [and there are PLENTY of bad] really add to the story. Though, I will admit to being ashamed at how our ancestors treated People of Color as less than human – every time I read books like this I am filled with shame at this countries past and how at times, it seems we have not traveled very far in advancement. And then I make a renewed commitment to do better and more and what I can.
Bahni Turpin narrated this book and she did an excellent job. I loved how she brought Cora to life and gave her a voice. It made the book that much better.
A book everyone should read because it is important to know the brutality and cruelity of our past and the impacts on the present and future.
This is a brilliant and realistic book about slavery, with a magical realism twist. The depictions of the characters and their lives are very real — and very moving. Highly recommended, especially for people trying to understand our American history