Pulitzer Prize Fiction Winner
The Underground Railroad
by Colson Whitehead
Summary
Whitehead reimagines the historical Underground Railroad as a literal subterranean rail network as a young enslaved woman, Cora, flees a Georgia plantation through a sequence of altered American states. Each stop refracts a different chapter of Black experience in America, blending speculative invention with archival fidelity. The novel offers a searing, allegorically charged reckoning with the nation's racial history.
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Historical Context & Significance
Whitehead won both the Pulitzer and the National Book Award for this novel, becoming one of the few authors to "sweep" the major prizes.