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All booksHistorical fictionThe Underground Railroad
The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
Historical fiction

The Underground Railroad

by Colson Whitehead

Quick take

Colson Whitehead’s award-winning story of an enslaved woman's dangerous journey along the Underground Railroad.

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    Literary

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    Critically acclaimed

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    Serious

Synopsis

Cora is an enslaved woman on a cotton plantation in Georgia. An outcast even among her fellow Africans, she is coming into womanhood—where even greater pain awaits. When Caesar, a recent arrival from Virginia, tells her about the Underground Railroad, they decide to take a terrifying risk and escape. Matters do not go as planned—Cora kills a young white boy who tries to capture her. Though they manage to find a station and head north, they are being hunted.

In Whitehead’s ingenious conception, the Underground Railroad is no mere metaphor—engineers and conductors operate a secret network of tracks and tunnels beneath the Southern soil. Cora and Caesar’s first stop is South Carolina, in a city that initially seems like a haven. But the city’s placid surface masks an insidious scheme designed for its Black denizens. And even worse: Ridgeway, the relentless slave catcher, is close on their heels. Forced to flee again, Cora embarks on a harrowing flight, state by state, seeking true freedom.

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