About this item
Colson Whitehead brilliantly dramatizes a strand of American history through the story of two boys sentenced to a hellish reform school in Jim Crow-era Florida. Abandoned by his parents, but kept on the straight and narrow by his grandmother, Elwood Curtis is about to enroll in the local black college. But for a black boy in the Jim Crow South of the early 1960s, one innocent mistake is enough to destroy the future. Elwood is sentenced to a juvenile reformatory called the Nickel Academy, whose mission statement says it provides "physical, intellectual and moral training" so the delinquent boys in their charge can become "honorable and honest men". In reality, the Nickel Academy is a grotesque chamber of horrors where the sadistic staff beat and sexually abuse the students, corrupt officials and locals steal food and supplies, and any boy who resists is likely to disappear "out back". Stunned to find himself in such a vicious environment, Elwood tries to hold onto Dr. King's ringing assertion "Throw us in jail and we will still love you". His friend Turner thinks Elwood is worse than naive, that the world is crooked, and that the only way to survive is to scheme and avoid trouble. The tension between Elwood's ideals and Turner's skepticism leads to a decision whose repercussions will echo down the decades. Based on the real story of a reform school in Florida that operated for one hundred and eleven 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.
About the Author
COLSON WHITEHEAD is the #1 bestselling author of eleven works of fiction and nonfiction, and is a two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize, for and , which also won the National Book Award. A recipient of MacArthur and Guggenheim fellowships, he lives in New York City. is the first book in The Harlem Trilogy. The second, , will be published in 2023.
