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The Nickel Boys (Winner 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction)
- A Novel
- Narrated by: JD Jackson, Colson Whitehead
- Length: 6 hrs and 46 mins
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Publisher's Summary
PULITZER PRIZE WINNER • NATIONAL BESTSELLER • This follow-up to The Underground Railroad brilliantly dramatizes another strand of American history through the story of two boys unjustly sentenced to a hellish reform school in Jim Crow-era Florida. • "One of the most gifted novelists in America today." —NPR
When 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.
Based 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 and “should further cement Whitehead as one of his generation's best" (Entertainment Weekly).
Look for Colson Whitehead’s new novel, Crook Manifesto, coming soon!
What the critics say
WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE FOR FICTION • New York Times Bestseller • Longlisted for The National Book Award • Winner of The Kirkus Prize • Winner of the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction • One of Publishers Weekly's 10 Best Books of the Year
"A necessary read." —President Barack Obama
"This is a powerful book by one of America's great writers. . . . Without sentimentality, in as intense and finely crafted a book as you'll ever read, Whitehead tells a story of American history that won’t allow you to see the country in the same way again." —Toronto Star
"Colson Whitehead continues to make a classic American genre his own. . . . The narration is disciplined and the sentences plain and sturdy, oars cutting into water. Every chapter hits its marks. . . . Whitehead comports himself with gravity and care, the steward of painful, suppressed histories; his choices on the page can feel as much ethical as aesthetic. The ordinary language, the clear pane of his prose, lets the stories speak for themselves. . . . Whitehead has written novels of horror and apocalypse; nothing touches the grimness of the real stories he conveys here" —The New York Times
Featured Article: Must-Listen Audiobooks by Outstanding Black Authors
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What listeners say about The Nickel Boys (Winner 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction)
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- S. Richards
- 2020-06-19
Hard to love, even harder to forget
It's a struggle to figure out how to rate this book as it has left me feeling agitated and wretched...like my soul has been scraped raw. I keep thinking of my father who is of an age with the main character and how this could have been his story if not for the happenstance of birthplace and nationality. Keep thinking of how my father wished to go to America when he was a young man and was frustrated when he could not. Keep thinking that my kind, hard-working, selfless , "do-the-right-thing" father would have been caught up in this mindless hostility and brutal violence. How do I rate a book that makes me feel so hopelessly sad? Like I'm tumbling down and down and down? 5 stars means that "I loved it" according to Audible's rating scale but I cannot like nor love this story. The history it unearths is too brutal and if I could, I would hide from it. On the other end, 1 star means "it's not for me" but it IS for me. And it's for you. It's for all of us. So what's the final word?....4 stars overall due to the dull-toned narrator. Read it. You may not love it but you will not forget it.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Anonymous User
- 2019-08-21
Must Read
The story is a horrific one, but told in such a way as not to insult the reader. The violence and brutality suggested and not gratuitous. It's all that is needed, we the reader get the messages loud and clear. Bravo to Colson Whitehead for this thoughtfully told story.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Christina Smith
- 2021-04-15
Amazing!
I sat and listen to the whole book straight. I have never "binge" an audio book until now. it is a heavy book. It is well written, based off real events from a reform school, he brings us right there in the school. Heavy, hard at some points to take in the events that happened but well worth getting this book.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Kat___d
- 2023-12-20
Well written, but a very boring story
The story had potential to be so much more interesting. There wasn’t a lot of depth to it or the characters. The writing was incredible. Disappointing read.
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- Amazon Customer
- 2023-01-24
Very important read
This is a very important read for our humanity
These stories need to be told again and again
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- Carolyn Ledwell
- 2022-05-28
How timely…
At a time when the bodies of indigenous children, victims of residential schools, are being unearthed in Canada, The Nickle Boys brilliantly records the abuse suffered at the hands of those whose job it is erase those who dare to be different. Racism, Intolerance and abuse continues. Wonderfully written and narrated.
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- Amazon Customer
- 2020-09-12
Affecting and riveting
Affecting and riveting. The all-encompassing, pervasive and ongoing harm caused by the reform industrial complex laid bare for the reader. Heart-wrenching.
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- Amazon Customer
- 2020-04-17
Great Story
I Went through the whole book in one listen. Great narration. Would Recommend to anyone.
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- Maria N.
- 2019-09-01
Heartbreaking and beautiful story of resilience beautifully narrated
What a story, so heartbreaking but at the same time shows the resilience of the oppressed on the south. Beautifully narrated.
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