Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad is the #7 best-selling audiobook of 2017. A powerful tale of one woman’s ferocious will to escape the horrors of slavery, The Underground Railroad is a shattering, powerful meditation on the history we all share.
“Whitehead’s new novel is much more than the story of a runaway slave, Cora, who fights her way to the North; it is also a phantasmagorical look at race in America. In this instance the railroad is literal — a train roaring through tunnels constructed like a subway, leading Cora to several unlikely destinations. Like the travels of Gulliver, each of Cora’s stops on the railroad is a different version of America, displaying the varied ways in which Americans view race and manifest destiny. With exquisite prose, Colson digs deep into the troubled heart of America, exposing prejudice, tolerance, hatred, violence, and love as readers stop at each distinct station. Cora is a hero for the ages, and Whitehead is a writer who can guide us, like a station master, into the light. This is a fantastic novel.”
—William Carl, Wellesley Books, Wellesley, MA
