{"product_id":"the-underground-railroad-by-colson-whitehead","title":"The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eCora is a slave on a cotton plantation in Georgia. Life is hell for all the slaves, but especially bad for Cora; an outcast even among her fellow Africans, she is coming into womanhood--where even greater pain awaits. When Caesar, a recent arrival from Virginia, tells her about the Underground Railroad, they decide to take a terrifying risk and escape. Matters do not go as planned--Cora kills a young white boy who tries to capture her. Though they manage to find a station and head north, they are being hunted.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIn Whitehead's ingenious conception, the Underground Railroad is no mere metaphor--engineers and conductors operate a secret network of tracks and tunnels beneath the Southern soil. Cora and Caesar's first stop is South Carolina, in a city that initially seems like a haven. But the city's placid surface masks an insidious scheme designed for its black denizens. And even worse: Ridgeway, the relentless slave catcher, is close on their heels. Forced to flee again, Cora embarks on a harrowing flight, state by state, seeking true freedom.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eLike the protagonist of Gulliver's Travels, Cora encounters different worlds at each stage of her journey--hers is an odyssey through time as well as space. As Whitehead brilliantly re-creates 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. \u003cem\u003eThe Underground Railroad\u003c\/em\u003e is at once a kinetic adventure tale of one woman's ferocious will to escape the horrors of bondage and a shattering, powerful meditation on the history we all share.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e_____________________________________________\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003ePaperback, excellent condition. Minimal shelf wear to cover edges. Pages are clean and binding is tight.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003ePublished by Anchor Books, 2018 (first published 2016).\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eISBN: 9780345804327\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Laurel Tree Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49693370056946,"sku":null,"price":4.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0606\/1460\/7090\/files\/rn-image_picker_lib_temp_234b8556-a803-4de6-8948-bba7fcf8f6d2.jpg?v=1781969782","url":"https:\/\/www.laureltreebooks.co.uk\/products\/the-underground-railroad-by-colson-whitehead","provider":"Laurel Tree Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}