The Nickel Boys

nWINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE nONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR nTime, Esquire, The Washington Post, The Guardian, Slate, NPR, Entertainment Weekly, Vox, Variety, Christian Science Monitor, The Minneapolis Star Tribune, The Dallas Morning News, Literary Hub, BuzzFeed, The New York Public Library n nNEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER n nNATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FINALIST n nONE OF TIME MAGAZINE'S 10 BEST FICTION BOOKS OF THE DECADE n nWINNER OF THE KIRKUS PRIZE n nLONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD n nLONGLISTED FOR THE ORWELL PRIZE FOR POLITICAL FICTION 2020 n nIn this bravura follow-up to the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award-winning #1 New York Times bestseller 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 Jim Crow-era Florida. n nWhen 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. Elwood's only salvation is his friendship with fellow delinquent Turner, which deepens despite Turner's 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 Elwood's ideals and Turner's skepticism leads to a decision whose repercussions will echo down the decades. n nBased 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.n