Colson Whitehead
The author of The Underground Railroad, Oprah’s new book-club pick, talks about making fiction from history’s great atrocity
by RADHIKA JONES
Aug 13, 2016
2 minutes
How did this story come to you? I was thinking how, when you’re a kid, you think the Underground Railroad is a literal railroad. It was the year 2000. I was finishing up John Henry Days. I didn’t feel like doing another research-heavy book. Slavery is such a huge topic—I didn’t feel up for it emotionally. Every couple of years I would go back to the
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