Winner of 2016 National Book Award for Fiction

The winners of the National Book Awards were announced yesterday.  The fiction winner is 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 Whitehead’s 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.  (For my review, go to http://schatjesshelves.blogspot.ca/2016/09/review-of-underground-railroad-by.html.)

For the complete longlist released in September, go to http://schatjesshelves.blogspot.ca/2016/09/2016-national-book-award-for-fiction.html and for summaries of the fiction finalists, go to http://schatjesshelves.blogspot.ca/2016/10/national-book-award-fiction-finalists.html.

For all the winners, check out http://www.nationalbook.org/nba2016.html#.WC50qfkrLIV.