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    The Nickel Boys: A Novel
    Unavailable
    The Nickel Boys: A Novel
    Unavailable
    The Nickel Boys: A Novel
    Audiobook6 hours

    The Nickel Boys: A Novel

    Published by Penguin Random House Audio

    Narrated by JD Jackson

    4.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    In this bravura follow-up to the Pulitzer Prize—and National Book Award-winning number one New York Times best-seller The Underground Railroad, Colson Whitehead brilliantly dramatizes another strand of American history through the story of two boys sentenced to a hellish reform school in Jim Crow-era Florida.

    As the Civil Rights movement begins to reach the black enclave of Frenchtown in segregated Tallahassee, Elwood Curtis takes the words of Dr. Martin Luther King to heart: He is "as good as anyone." Abandoned by his parents, but kept on the straight and narrow by his grandmother, Elwood 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 beats and sexually abuses 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. Formed in the crucible of the evils Jim Crow wrought, the boys' fates will be determined by what they endured at the Nickel Academy.

    Based on the real story of a reform school in Florida 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.

    Editor's Note

    Editor’s pick…

    “The Nickel Boys” is at once the thematic successor to Colson Whitehead's Pulitzer-winning “The Underground Railroad” and so stylistically different, it’s hard to imagine the two novels came from the same author. Based on the real-world discovery of a mass grave at a boys’ reformatory academy in Florida, “The Nickel Boys” explores the brutality of a “school” where abuse is rampant. Given the gruesome topic, Whitehead’s restraint is astonishing; his economy of words and imagery make the snippets of overt racism all the more potent.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateJul 16, 2019
    ISBN9781984891389
    Unavailable
    The Nickel Boys: A Novel

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    Reviews for The Nickel Boys

    4.5/5

    152 ratings12 reviews

    What did you think?

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    • 5/5
      Moving, compassionate, and relentless in its moral truth. I place "Nickelboys" on the uppermost part of my heavenly bookshelf, along with Baldwin, Wright, and Ellison.
    • 5/5
      What an extraordinary writer! Colson Whitehead gained me as a fan with The Underground Railroad and has maintained me as a fan with The Nickel Boys. I was transported to Nickel through his words. The Nickel Boys is a powerfully stirring read that had me experiencing feelings that ran the emotional spectrum. Thank you, Mr. Whitehead, for another amazing book.
    • 5/5
      I appreciate the telling of these stories. It is difficult to listen as imagine my nephew, who is currently incarcerated and has been in the system since he was 12, and my own father who was incarcerated for most of my life, as only 2 men in this horrific system that dehumanizes people and destroys opportunity. This book humanizes the men who have been thrown away and critiques the institutions and people who uphold them. Mr. Whitehead is an amazing writer who does not allow us to forget how deeply disturbing and deeply American these horrors are.
    • 5/5
      Wow. Tough + shattering. Necessary but quaking. Hard to look back but the fiction aspect is helpful.
    • 4/5
      I read this due to the strong reviews, the best of year 2019 nods., the media hype.
      It is difficult for me to express my feelings about this story, one that has garnered much acclaim. It's well written, it's based on fact, it's one that makes me angry, it tests my social and moral conscience. So what's the problem? For me, this is a book that demands to be non-fiction. It is the only way I can see it being truly heard.
    • 3/5
      Kind of confusing to listen to but overall okay to me
    • 5/5
      This book never entirely downloaded and no audio after several chapters. I really would like to hear the book in its entirety. Please let me know what I have to do if this happens again.
    • 5/5
      Fiction is NOT more heartbreaking than truth, especially when truth is it's basis. Mr. Whitehead has woven a narrative so skillfully I sometimes clenched my fingers, waiting for the next horror about to be revealed. The ending is a shocker .
    • 4/5
      This is a really heavy story (as you might expect) but wonderfully told and beautifully narrated.
    • 5/5
      Simply Brilliant. Hard subject matter but important. I can’t recommend it enough!

      2 people found this helpful

    • 5/5
      The end left me wondering, it was sad I felt sorry Elroy being at the wrong place at the wrong time he was going to be somebody.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      Amazing, sparse descriptive prose moves this engaging, well told story forward.

      1 person found this helpful