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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Magnificent writing style and a complete look at the history of the different states during this time.
Thought-provoking, stayed with me a long time. Disturbing. But very well done.
I could not get into this novel.
It was wonderful
I read this for book club. I didn’t care for it. I did not like the unreal ness of the book. The Underground Railroad was not like a subway underground. There were no skyscrapers, and weird towns. I understood too late the book was an allegory and not history. But it was distracting and disorientating. On the other hand the characters were brilliant and the writing compelling. But be aware it’s not a historical novel but a fantasy novel.
Great read
Good historical facts
Wonderful book. Haunting to read. This is true.
Need to read. I couldnt put it down
This is an important book. Not easy to read, but imagination woven with an awful reality. Hard to look away.
This book broke my heart but I could not stop reading it. I literally could not put it down. My heart ached most of the time I was reading it. I would highly recommend this book
Fascinating take on the real underground railroad through haunting fantasy.
Material on this subject is always very difficult to read. This book, smoothly yet honestly, told a story that was easier to read as it was approached through a mainly intellectual, rather than emotional, viewpoint. I greatly enjoyed Bahni Turpin’s stunning vocal performance.
This is one of the best books I’ve read in quite some time. It gave such great detail on the underground railroad with characters that you cheered for and cried over and I didn’t want any to fail in their quest for freedom. Some made it and alas, some did not. It should be required reading for all high school students.
Although it was fiction, it describes the horror of slavery but also describes what the people who were involved with the underground railroad faced if they were caught. I think that most people involved really cared but when Cora was asked to convinced her friends to submit to sterilization I thought this was terrible and scary, For me this was the most eye opening part. When people who were “helping” her find a job, get health care etc. didn’t think of her as a human being and what was best for her but what they perceived as “best for everyone”. Just being free of the slave owner still did not make her free. I liked how the characters are presented and that in the last few chapters I got to know what happened to each of them especially her mother.
heartbreaking but informative
Loved this book. Characters were unforgettable.
Cora is a slave at a plantation in Georgia, she has fought hard for the few things she has and is thought to be crazy to the others on the plantation. When she is approached by Caesar who wants her to accompany him to run, she bluntly refuses. However when things change Cora takes another approaches and agrees. This story follows Cora’s journey and the people she interacts with along the way trying to reach freedom.
There were aspects of this story I thought were riveting but there were so many characters at times I felt lost. A difficult read but powerful.
A captivating and thought provoking read. Definitely would recommend.
Heartbreaking. The cruelty of slave owners was chilling and the courage of those who participated in the underground railroad was inspiring. A thought-provoking and disturbing masterpiece.