Author of The Underground Railroad Colson Whitehead brilliantly dramatizes another strand of
American history through the story of two boys sentenced to a hellish reform school in 1960s
Florida. Praise for Pulitzer Prize-winning The Underground Railroad: 'My book of the year by
some distance . . . luminous furious wildly inventive' Observer 'An engrossing and harrowing
novel' Sunday Times 'Tells one of the most compelling stories I have ever read' Guardian
Whitehead is a superb storyteller . . . [he] brilliantly intertwines his allegory with history
. . . writing at the peak of his game' Telegraph
________________________________________________________________________ Elwood Curtis has
taken the words of Dr Martin Luther King to heart: he is as good as anyone. Abandoned by his
parents brought up by his loving strict and clearsighted grandmother Elwood is about to
enroll in the local black college. But given the time and the place one innocent mistake is
enough to destroy his future and so Elwood arrives at The Nickel Academy which claims to
provide 'physical intellectual and moral training' which will equip its inmates to become
'honorable and honest men'. In reality the Nickel Academy is a chamber of horrors where
physical emotional and sexual abuse is rife where corrupt officials and tradesmen do a brisk
trade in supplies intended for the school and where any boy who resists is likely to disappear
'out back'. Stunned to find himself in this vicious environment Elwood tries to hold on to Dr
King's ringing assertion 'Throw us in jail and we will still love you.' But Elwood's fellow
inmate and new friend Turner thinks Elwood is naive and worse the world is crooked and the
only way to survive is to emulate the cruelty and cynicism of their oppressors. The tension
between Elwood's idealism and Turner's skepticism leads to a decision which will have
decades-long repercussions. Based on the history of a real reform school in Florida that
operated for one hundred and eleven years and warped and destroyed the lives of thousands of
children The Nickel Boys is a devastating driven narrative by a great American novelist whose
work is essential to understanding the current reality of the United States.
