Book Discussion: The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead

Wed, Apr 24 2019
3:00 pm – 4:30 pm
Central Library, Trustees Room

book club book discussion


From the prizewinning, bestselling author of John Henry Days and Sag Harbor  Colson Whitehead, comes this brilliant recreation of the engineers and conductors operating the secret network of tracks and tunnels accessed by enslaved people seeking freedom in the antebellum south. The experience of the Underground Railroad is personalized through Cora, enslaved on a cotton plantation in Georgia, whose harrowing flight--pursued by relentless slave catcher Ridgeway, reflects that of Swift's Gulliver through a network of the unique terrors awaiting black people in this dark saga of the pre-Civil War era of American history. The Underground Railroad is at once a kinetic adventure tale of one woman's will to escape bondage and a powerful meditation on the history we all share.

This discussion will be held inside the Trustee's Room, located on the third floor of the library. An alternate, earlier session will be held in the Second Floor Meeting Room at 2:30pm on the same day.

Reserve a special Discussion Sets copy of the novel, or pick one up on display in the Language and Literature division. Click here for more information about the Discussion Sets collection.

Finished the book early, check out Ta-Nehisi Coates' We Were Eight Years In Power: an American Tragedy, or read ahead to the next installment in our discussion series Elena Ferrante's My Brilliant Friend (Book One of the Neapolitan Novels), which we will discuss on Wednesday, May 29th, 2019 at 2:30pm and 7:00pm. Have a suggestion for our next discussion? Email me [email protected]!

10 Grand Army Plaza
Brooklyn, NY 11238 Get Directions
Add to My Calendar 04/24/2019 03:00 pm 04/24/2019 04:30 pm America/New_York Book Discussion: The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead

From the prizewinning, bestselling author of John Henry Days and Sag Harbor  Colson Whitehead, comes this brilliant recreation of the engineers and conductors operating the secret network of tracks and tunnels accessed by enslaved people seeking freedom in the antebellum south. The experience of the Underground Railroad is personalized through Cora, enslaved on a cotton plantation in Georgia, whose harrowing flight--pursued by relentless slave catcher Ridgeway, reflects that of Swift's Gulliver through a network of the unique terrors awaiting black people in this dark saga of the pre-Civil War era of American history. The Underground Railroad is at once a kinetic adventure tale of one woman's will to escape bondage and a powerful meditation on the history we all share.

This discussion will be held inside the Trustee's Room, located on the third floor of the library. An alternate, earlier session will be held in the Second Floor Meeting Room at 2:30pm on the same day.

Reserve a special Discussion Sets copy of the novel, or pick one up on display in the Language and Literature division. Click here for more information about the Discussion Sets collection.

Brooklyn Public Library - Central Library, Trustees Room MM/DD/YYYY 60