The Underground Railroad

The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead Cora is a
slave on a cotton plantation in Georgia. Life is hell for
all the slaves but especially bad for Cora; 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 Whiteheads 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 Caesars first stop is South
Carolina in a city that initially seems like a haven. But
the citys 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. Like the protagonist
of Gullivers Travels Cora encounters different worlds at
each stage of her journey–hers is an odyssey through time
as well as space. As Whitehead brilliantly re-creates the
unique terrors for black people in the pre-Civil War era
his narrative seamlessly weaves the saga of America from
the brutal importation of Africans to the unfulfilled
promises of the present day. The Underground Railroad is
at once a kinetic adventure tale of one womans ferocious
will to escape the horrors of bondage and a shattering
powerful meditation on the history we all share.