Description
The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead follows Cora, an enslaved woman on a cotton plantation in Georgia, who escapes with Caesar, a fellow enslaved man, using a secret network that Whitehead transforms from a historical metaphor into an actual underground railway. As they travel north, they encounter different forms of oppression and resistance while being relentlessly pursued by a determined slave catcher.
Blending historical events with speculative elements, the novel uses Cora’s journey to explore the history and legacy of slavery in the United States. Each stage of her escape reveals another aspect of the country’s racial history, from the forced enslavement of Africans to the continuing consequences of that history in the present.
The Underground Railroad is a powerful choice for adult readers who enjoy historical fiction, literary fiction and stories exploring slavery, race, freedom and American history. The novel won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2017.
