WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE FOR FICTION 2017WINNER OF THE ARTHUR C. CLARKE AWARD 2017LONGLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE 2017NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER 2016AMAZON.COM #1 BOOK OF THE YEAR 2016#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER AND A NEW YORK TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR 'Whitehead is on a roll: the reviews have been sublime' Guardian'Luminous, furious, wildly inventive' Observer'Hands down one of the best, if not the best, book I've read this year' Stylist 'Dazzling' New York Review of BooksPraised by Barack Obama and an Oprah Book Club Pick, The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead won the National Book Award 2016 and the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction 2017.Cora is a slave on a cotton plantation in Georgia. All the slaves lead a hellish existence, but Cora has it worse than most; she is an outcast even among her fellow Africans and she is approaching womanhood, where it is clear even greater pain awaits. When Caesar, a slave recently arrived from Virginia, tells her about the Underground Railroad, they take the perilous decision to escape to the North.In Whitehead's razor-sharp imagining of the antebellum South, the Underground Railroad has assumed a physical form: a dilapidated box car pulled along subterranean tracks by a steam locomotive, picking up fugitives wherever it can. Cora and Caesar's first stop is South Carolina, in a city that initially seems like a haven. But its placid surface masks an infernal scheme designed for its unknowing black inhabitants. And even worse: Ridgeway, the relentless slave catcher sent to find Cora, is close on their heels. Forced to flee again, Cora embarks on a harrowing flight, state by state, seeking true freedom.At each stop on her journey, Cora encounters a different world. As Whitehead brilliantly recreates 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 the story of one woman's ferocious will to escape the horrors of bondage and a shatteringly powerful meditation on history.
CONTRIBUTORS: Colson WhiteheadEAN: 9780708898406COUNTRY: United KingdomPAGES: WEIGHT: 320 gHEIGHT: 196 cm
PUBLISHED BY: Little, Brown Book GroupDATE PUBLISHED: CITY: GENRE: FICTION / GeneralWIDTH: 127 cmSPINE:
Book Themes:
Relating to African American / Black American people, Modern and contemporary fiction: general and literary, History: specific events and topics
It has invaded both my sleeping and waking thoughts . . . Each character feels alive with a singular humanity . . . Whitehead is on a roll, the reviews have been sublime, An engrossing and harrowing novel, [A] brutal, vital, devastating novel...This is a luminous, furious, wildly inventive tale that not only shines a bright light on one of the darkest periods of history, but also opens up thrilling new vistas for the form of the novel itself, This thrilling tale of escape from a deep south plantation takes in terror, beauty and the history of human tragedy..This uncanny novel never attempts to deliver a message - instead it tells one of the most compelling stories I have ever read. Cora's strong, graceful hands touch on the greatest tragedies of our history, It's so good it's hard to praise it without whipping out the cliches: it's an elegant, devastating powerhouse of a book, following a young black woman all over America as she tries to escape the horrors of slavery. When it was published with Oprah's imprimatur, in August, it was universally acclaimed. It deserved it
Colson Whitehead is a multi-award winning and bestselling author whose works include The Nickel Boys, The Underground Railroad, The Noble Hustle, Zone One, Sag Harbor, The Intuitionist, John Henry Days, Apex Hides the Hurt and a collection of essays, The Colossus of New York. He is one of only four novelists to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction twice and is a recipient of MacArthur and Guggenheim fellowships. For The Underground Railroad, Whitehead won the National Book Award, the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, the Arthur C. Clarke Award for Fiction, the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence and was longlisted for the Booker Prize. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for a second time for The Nickel Boys, which also won the George Orwell Prize for Political Fiction and The Kirkus Prize. The Underground Railroad has been adapted as an Amazon Prime TV series, produced and directed by the Academy Award winning director Barry Jenkins, and was broadcast in 2021. He lives with his family in New York City.
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WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE FOR FICTION 2017WINNER OF THE ARTHUR C. CLARKE AWARD 2017LONGLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE 2017NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER 2016AMAZON.COM #1 BOOK OF THE YEAR 2016#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER AND A NEW YORK TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR 'Whitehead is on a roll: the reviews have been sublime' Guardian'Luminous, furious, wildly inventive' Observer'Hands down one of the best, if not the best, book I've read this year' Stylist 'Dazzling' New York Review of BooksPraised by Barack Obama and an Oprah Book Club Pick, The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead won the National Book Award 2016 and the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction 2017.Cora is a slave on a cotton plantation in Georgia. All the slaves lead a hellish existence, but Cora has it worse than most; she is an outcast even among her fellow Africans and she is approaching womanhood, where it is clear even greater pain awaits. When Caesar, a slave recently arrived from Virginia, tells her about the Underground Railroad, they take the perilous decision to escape to the North.In Whitehead's razor-sharp imagining of the antebellum South, the Underground Railroad has assumed a physical form: a dilapidated box car pulled along subterranean tracks by a steam locomotive, picking up fugitives wherever it can. Cora and Caesar's first stop is South Carolina, in a city that initially seems like a haven. But its placid surface masks an infernal scheme designed for its unknowing black inhabitants. And even worse: Ridgeway, the relentless slave catcher sent to find Cora, is close on their heels. Forced to flee again, Cora embarks on a harrowing flight, state by state, seeking true freedom.At each stop on her journey, Cora encounters a different world. As Whitehead brilliantly recreates 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 the story of one woman's ferocious will to escape the horrors of bondage and a shatteringly powerful meditation on history.
CONTRIBUTORS: Colson WhiteheadEAN: 9780708898406COUNTRY: United KingdomPAGES: WEIGHT: 320 gHEIGHT: 196 cm
PUBLISHED BY: Little, Brown Book GroupDATE PUBLISHED: CITY: GENRE: FICTION / GeneralWIDTH: 127 cmSPINE:
Book Themes:
Relating to African American / Black American people, Modern and contemporary fiction: general and literary, History: specific events and topics
Colson Whitehead is a multi-award winning and bestselling author whose works include The Nickel Boys, The Underground Railroad, The Noble Hustle, Zone One, Sag Harbor, The Intuitionist, John Henry Days, Apex Hides the Hurt and a collection of essays, The Colossus of New York. He is one of only four novelists to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction twice and is a recipient of MacArthur and Guggenheim fellowships. For The Underground Railroad, Whitehead won the National Book Award, the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, the Arthur C. Clarke Award for Fiction, the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence and was longlisted for the Booker Prize. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for a second time for The Nickel Boys, which also won the George Orwell Prize for Political Fiction and The Kirkus Prize. The Underground Railroad has been adapted as an Amazon Prime TV series, produced and directed by the Academy Award winning director Barry Jenkins, and was broadcast in 2021. He lives with his family in New York City.
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A fantastic book. The moment I started reading I was pulled into a gripping storyline that constantly had me on the edge of my seat. I couldn’t put it down even for a moment.
As daar nou al ooit ’n onwaarskynlike liefde geskets is in ’n romanse, is dit die verhouding tussen Danika en Dewald. Dit kon skaars slegter begin, met sy ondeurdagte opmerking by die begrafnis van Danika se man. Maar dit is sy grysblou oë, en nie net die beskuldiging wat hy uitgespreek het nie, wat haar ry.
Die storielyn fokus sterk op skuld, aanspreeklikheid en die invloed van ander se oordeel oor situasies. Mens kan kers opsteek by Dewald, met sy nugtere uitkyk. Dit was egter juis sy geneigdheid om jammer te kry en te vergoed vir onreg, wat ’n tydelike wig tussen hulle ingedryf het.
Ek het nog nooit die voorreg van ’n ski-vakansie gehad nie, daarom het ek dit baie geniet saam met Danika en haar familie. Net genoeg inligting om die storielyn te ondersteun en Danika se vertwyfeling finaal stop te sit.
Ek het vinnig weer gekyk na hierdie skrywer se vorige twee Romanzas, Om die sterre te raak, en Waag en wen, en ek voel daar is ’n duidelike groei in haar skryfstyl. Onvoorwaardelike liefde verdien ’n ekstra ster van my kant af.
Die Romanza in die Moderne subgenre, is uitgegee deur Lapa Uitgewers.
In onlangse Romanzas was daar ’n paar boere waaroor lesers en heldinne geswymel het. Malene Breytenbach skryf toe ook ’n boer in haar nuwe Romanza in, maar met die verskil dat hierdie boer die skurk is. ’n Angswekkende en afstootlike teisteraar wat vir Kira Louw noop om ’n pos as verpleegster op ’n luukste passasierskip te aanvaar in ’n poging om van hom ontslae te raak.
Dit bring dan ook die ware held in die prentjie, die aantreklike skeepsdokter, Albert Dorell. Struikelblokke is ’n gegewe in die romanse genre, maar die skrywer vermy een wat alte dikwels opduik, naamlik ’n held wat vooraf besluit het, om welke rede ookal, dat hy nie gaan trou nie. Sy kom met ’n vars invalshoek, naamlik die vereiste dat ’n vrou vir Albert moet kan aanpas by ’n gegoede en tradisievaste familie op Malta. Anders as sy pa en sy voormalige Suid-Afrikaanse vrou, wie se huwelik nie die toets deurstaan het nie.
Die feit dat aantreklike mans en vrouens gewoonlik té veel aandag kry van die teenoorgestelde geslag, maak ook telkens deel uit van die storielyn van Seenimf en die skeepsdokter. Die skip en die bedrywighede dien as agtergrond, maar oorheers nie die storielyn nie. ’n Oulike ekstra is die pittige karakter, Lee-Anne in wie Kira ’n bondgenoot vind. “Jy’t nie vir my koebaai gesê nie, toe’s ek nogal aangevat in my binneste, jy weet.” (p.106) Ek het vir Lee-Anne baie geniet, so ook die storie as geheel. Daar was oorgenoeg onverwagte wendings om die aandag te behou, alvorens die uiteindelike gelukkige einde aanmeld.
Haar voorneme om nie weer betrokke te raak nie, swig voor 'n aantreklike boer
’n Jaar nadat haar verlowing misluk het, koop Marguerite van Wyk Die Blou Turksvy, ’n besige winkel op haar grootworddorp, Viljoensvlei. Sy het groot planne om dit uit te brei en vaste voornemens om “eerder kaalvoet oor die naaste berg (te loop) as om ooit weer die gedagte te kry om haar aan ’n man te verbind.” (p. 11)
Op Engels is daar ’n uitdrukking wat lui: famous last words. Dit is wat mens spoedig van haar voorneme kan sê wanneer Bernard Visagie op die toneel verskyn. Die aantrekkingskrag tussen dié twee gee ook aanleiding tot ’n interessante dimensie in die storielyn, want dit word duidelik dat daar ’n vete van meer as dertig jaar bestaan tussen die Van Wyks en die Visagies. Die skrywer hou mens aan die wonder daaroor, terwyl Bernard en Marguerite hulle eie stryd het met hulle gevoelens vir mekaar.
Die oulike titel kom by monde van die einste boer, Bernard: “Miskien gee iemand jou eendag ’n rede om te bly.” (p.117) Die held kry volpunte by my, ’n man uit een stuk, standvastig en met goeie maniere. Die romanse is uitgegee in die sub-genre, Plaas, en het goed daarin geslaag om my aandag te behou. Ek het juis deesdae so ’n swakte vir boere en boere se vrouens!