The Nickel Boys (Winner 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction): A Novel

About this book

PULITZER PRIZE WINNER NATIONAL BESTSELLER This follow-up to The Underground Railroad brilliantly dramatizes another strand of American history through the story of two boys unjustly sentenced to a hellish reform school in Jim Crow-era Florida. "One of the most gifted novelists in America today." NPR When Elwood Curtis a black boy growing up in 1960s Tallahassee is unfairly sentenced to a juvenile reformatory called the Nickel Academy he finds himself trapped in a grotesque chamber of horrors. Elwoods only salvation is his friendship with fellow delinquent Turner which deepens despite Turners conviction that Elwood is hopelessly naive that the world is crooked and that the only way to survive is to scheme and avoid trouble. As life at the Academy becomes ever more perilous the tension between Elwoods ideals and Turners skepticism leads to a decision whose repercussions will echo down the decades. Based on the real story of a reform school that operated for 111 years and warped the lives of thousands of children The Nickel Boys is a devastating driven narrative that showcases a great American novelist writing at the height of his powers and should further cement Whitehead as one of his generations best" (Entertainment Weekly). Look for Colson Whiteheads new novel Crook Manifesto coming soon!