English language
Published May 2, 2016 by Little, Brown Book Group Limited.
The Underground Railroad is a historical fiction novel by American author Colson Whitehead, published by Doubleday in 2016. The alternate history novel tells the story of Cora and Caesar, two slaves in the southeastern United States during the 19th century, who make a bid for freedom from their Georgia plantation by following the Underground Railroad, which the novel depicts as a rail transport system with safe houses and secret routes. The book was a critical and commercial success, hitting the bestseller lists and winning several literary awards, including the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, the National Book Award for Fiction, the Arthur C. Clarke Award, and the 2017 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence. A TV series adaptation written and directed by Barry Jenkins was released in May 2021.
When I was young, I understood this term literally. Whitehead’s alternate history does the same intentionally. The point of view alternates between Cora and other characters she encounters on her journey from the Georgia plantation she escaped. Whitehead creates harrowing and fascinating scenarios at each of the stops, illuminating the cruelty and contradictions at the heart of the United States.
An American epic. Shorter than The Amazing Adventures Kavalier & Clay, but no less successful in creating an original hero.
The passage where they travel through a burned-out version of Tennessee will stay with me for a long time.
