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The Underground Railroad Gets Best Fiction Title

“I wrote the book for myself, with the usual hope that if I wrote it well, others might get something out of it, too,” said Colson Whitehead about his novel The Underground Railroad, which won the 2016 National Book Award for fiction.

It is the moving story of a slave named Cora and her odyssey toward freedom along a route fraught with danger.

In an interview with novelist Laura Wilkinson, Whitehead said “slavery means being traumatized every moment of your life, which does terrible damage to your personality and psyche.” (Read interview.)

It’s a harrowing tale of the darkest days in American history and you can find it at the Library. Check out all the National Book Award winners.