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History and Invention: The Underground Railroad
Online · Video call
18:00 UTC · 90 minutes
How does fiction reimagine history? A conversation about Colson Whitehead’s novel and its literal railroad.
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Historical Fiction
The Underground Railroad
FictionPublished 2016North America
Cora escapes a Georgia plantation on a railroad that runs, literally, beneath the soil — each state she reaches a different vision of America.
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ON THE READING TABLE
History reimagined, and made newly unbearable
Whitehead’s central invention — a real railroad under the ground — frees the novel to move between eras and ideas while keeping its eyes fixed on Cora.
Each stop along the line is a sharp, self-contained world, and together they form an argument about the many faces of American cruelty and hope.
Unflinching but propulsive; discussion groups will find no shortage of questions about history, fiction and truth.
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What does this book invite you to notice? Which voice, idea, or moment would you bring to a reading discussion? Browse the author’s profile for context, or suggest a conversation to the team.
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Every story deserves a circle.
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