Zone One

Cora ist nur eine von unzähligen Schwarzen, die auf den Baumwollplantagen Georgias schlimmer als Tiere behandelt werden. Alle träumen von der Flucht - doch wie und wohin? Da hört Cora von der Underground Railroad, einem geheimen Fluchtnetzwerk für Sklaven. Über eine Falltür gelangt sie in den Untergrund und es beginnt eine atemberaubende Reise, auf der sie Leichendieben und Kopfgeldjägern, aber auch heldenhaften Bahnhofswärtern begegnet. Jeder Staat, den sie durchquert, hat andere Gesetze, andere Gefahren. Wartet am Ende wirklich die Freiheit? 'Underground Railroad' ist ein Manifest über die Menschlichkeit und zugleich eine virtuose Abrechnung damit, was es bedeutete und immer noch bedeutet, in Amerika schwarz zu sein.Ausgezeichnet mit dem National Book Award und Pulitzer Prize und ein Jahr ununterbrochen auf der New York Times-Bestsellerliste.

In a dazzlingly original work of non-fiction, the Pulitzer-Prize winning author of The Underground Railroad recreates the exuberance, the chaos, the promise, and the heartbreak of New York. Here is a literary love song that will entrance anyone who has lived in - or spent time - in the greatest of American cities.<BR><BR>A masterful evocation of the city that never sleeps, The Colossus of New York captures the city's inner and outer landscapes in a series of vignettes, meditations, and personal memories. Colson Whitehead conveys with almost uncanny immediacy the feelings and thoughts of longtime residents and of newcomers who dream of making it their home; of those who have conquered its challenges; and of those who struggle against its cruelties. <BR><BR>Whitehead's style is as multilayered and multifarious as New York itself: Switching from third person, to first person, to second person, he weaves individual voices into a jazzy musical composition that perfectly reflects the way we experience the city. There is a funny, knowing riff on what it feels like to arrive in New York for the first time; a lyrical meditation on how the city is transformed by an unexpected rain shower; and a wry look at the ferocious battle that is commuting. The plaintive notes of the lonely and dispossessed resound in one passage, while another captures those magical moments when the city seems to be talking directly to you, inviting you to become one with its rhythms. <BR><BR>The Colossus of New York is a remarkable portrait of life in the big city. Ambitious in scope, gemlike in its details, it is at once an unparalleled tribute to New York and the ideal introduction to one of the most exciting writers working today.

'RaMell Ross's transcendentally moving and frightening film' (Guardian, New York Film Festival) now a major motion picture and shortlisted for a Golden Globe.<BR><BR>WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE FOR FICTION 2020<BR>WINNER OF THE ORWELL PRIZE FOR POLITICAL FICTION 2020<BR>Winner of the Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction 2020<BR>Time #1 Novel of the Year 2019<BR><BR>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.<BR><BR>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 clear-sighted 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'.<BR><BR>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.<BR><BR>The tension between Elwood's idealism and Turner's skepticism leads to a decision which will have decades-long repercussions.<BR><BR>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.<BR><BR>'If greatness is excellence sustained over time, then without question, Whitehead is one of the greatest of his generation. In fact, figuring his age, acclaim, productivity and consistency, he is one of the greatest American writers alive' Time<BR><BR>'A commanding triumph' Sunday Times<BR><BR>'Every chapter hits its mark' New York Times

WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE FOR FICTION 2017#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER AND A NEW YORK TIMES BOOK OF THE YEARWINNER OF THE ARTHUR C. CLARKE AWARD 2017LONGLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE 2017NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER 2016Cora 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.'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 Books

Ausgezeichnet mit dem National Book Award und Pulitzer Prize, stand 'Underground Railroad' ein Jahr ununterbrochen auf der New York Times-Bestsellerliste - ab 14. Mai bei Amazon Prime unter der Regie von Academy-Award-Gewinner Barry JenkinsCora ist nur eine von unzähligen Schwarzen, die auf den Baumwollplantagen Georgias schlimmer als Tiere behandelt werden. Alle träumen von der Flucht - doch wie und wohin? Da hört Cora von der Underground Railroad, einem geheimen Fluchtnetzwerk für Sklaven. Über eine Falltür gelangt sie in den Untergrund und es beginnt eine atemberaubende Reise, auf der sie Leichendieben und Kopfgeldjägern, aber auch heldenhaften Bahnhofswärtern begegnet. Jeder Staat, den sie durchquert, hat andere Gesetze, andere Gefahren. Wartet am Ende wirklich die Freiheit? 'Underground Railroad' ist ein Manifest über die Menschlichkeit und zugleich eine virtuose Abrechnung damit, was es bedeutete und immer noch bedeutet, in Amerika schwarz zu sein.

Vom zweifachen Pulitzer-Preisträger und Autor der SPIEGEL-Bestseller 'Underground Railroad' und 'Die Nickel Boys'.New York vom Morgen, wenn die Müllmänner kommen, bis in die Nacht. New York für die Einheimischen und die Fremden, New York, beschrieben von einzelnen Stimmen an unterschiedlichen Orten wie Times Square, Brooklyn Bridge, Central Park, Coney Island oder Broadway. Colson Whitehead, New Yorker von Geburt und aus Überzeugung, zeichnet ein sehr persönliches Bild einer Stadt, in der nichts gewöhnlich ist.