The Nickel Boys: Colson Whitehead - Softcover

If greatness is excellence sustained over time, then without question, Whitehead is one of the greatest of his generation. In fact, figuring his age, acclaim, productivity and consistency, he is one of the greatest American writers alive (Time)

The narration is disciplined . . . Every chapter hits its marks . . . Whitehead comports himself with gravity and care, the steward of painful, suppressed histories (New York Times)

[The Nickel Boys] has the hot breath of a true story. It also has a beautiful, unforgettable young hero who walks right off the page into your heart . . . If you have been thinking you should read Colson Whitehead, The Nickel Boys is the perfect place to start (Newsweek)

Not a moment is wasted, and for someone who writes as vividly as Whitehead, there's also a graceful economy here. He uses words carefully, as if he doesn't want them to get in the way of the truths he's excavating (Boston Globe)

In this writer's powerful reckoning, those who enable historical amnesia are accessories to the crimes against humanity whose erasure they facilitate . . . A writer like Whitehead, who challenges the complacent assumption that we even fathom what happened in our past, has rarely seemed more essential (Frank Rich New York Times Book Review)

Whitehead has learned a thing or two about the craft of fiction. There's hardly a spare word in this book . . . Whitehead has a talent for creating ambiguous, complex scenes that fix in your memory. The Nickel Boys feels like a necessary fictional project, writing the blank or buried pages of US history; and it's done with virtuosity (Evening Standard)

A masterful piece of very human storytelling (Nikesh Shukla i)

if there's a more powerful novel this year, I'd be very surprised (Reader's Digest)

[Whitehead] has produced yet another modern classic . . . He's also adept at creating characters of unforgettable flesh-and-blood immediacy, with even the swiftest pen portrait conveying the full weight of a lived history. Quietly and purposefully heartbreaking in its portrayal of the lifelong legacy of abuse, it is quite outstanding (Stephanie Cross Daily Mail)

Forceful and tightly wrought . . . Whitehead homes in on the way in which every action fits into a fully orchestrated whole, which is why I would wish everyone, black or white, to read this novel. He demonstrates to superb effect how racism in America has long operated as a codified and sanctioned activity intended to enrich one group at the expense of another (Aminatta Forna Guardian)