A breathtakingly imaginative, lyrical and well researched antebellum historical fiction debut novel, infused with magical realism from Ta-Nehisi Coates. Follow the life of the extraordinary enslaved Hiram Walker, the black son of Howell Walker, plantation owner in Virginia, whose mother is sold by his father at the tender age of 9, gifted with the ability to remember everything, except memories of his mother, and later the power of conduction. A new vocabulary is created for slaves and whites, the fight for freedom leads to the Underground Railway with its hopes and dreams of a better future. This is a richly descriptive and detailed picture of the horrors of slavery, the deliberate practice of breaking up families and loving relationships and the psychological trauma this inflicts. Underpinning these inhuman wicked acts is the drive to crush and extinguish any embers of resistance to the status quo. Coates gives us profoundly traumatic, heartbreaking and moving storytelling that haunts, a necessary retelling of American history, the repercussions of which continue to bedevil contemporary America, doing it with humanity and compassion. Highly recommended. Many thanks to Penguin UK for an ARC.

An uneven book for me, which takes obvious cues from [book:Beloved|1411617] and [book:The Underground Railroad|30555488], and which bears some comparison to [book:Washington Black|39603810]. All three try to do something new with the slavery narrative, and Coates creates the 'conduction' where Hi is able to spirit himself from one place to another (which also made me think of Harry Potter...). As was the case with Underground Railroad and Beloved, events are both fantastic and metaphorical at the same time.

Coates concentrates his depiction of the brutality of slavery in the way it distorts families: Hi's relationships to his white plantation-owner father and his black slave mother are both twisted out of shape, and affect his own life and outlook as we might expect. He also does a fine job of offering up powerful scenes of slaves being torn apart from loved ones: children are taken from mothers, husbands from wives, lovers from lovers as they are sold at whim.

In places the writing is beautiful; in others Coates' more analytical voice is heard as he coolly explores the system of slavery and its meanings. But there are also places where this becomes a kind of adventure story which takes away from the more subtle aspects of the story. Perhaps fiction just isn't Coates' natural habitat; perhaps this just suffers from first-novel jitters. While not wholly satisfied, I'm not sorry I read this.

A thought provoking book of strong characters and a beautifully told and insightful tale of slavery and the Underground Railroad. Conceived mainly in the Deep South but flirting with the free Northern States, this is a complex and well conceived book. I would thoroughly recommend save for I struggled with the “mystical” story arc which felt unnecessary and detracted from an otherwise great read, which I powered through in a day!

A strong 3.5* (would have been 4* but for the more fantastical elements) and a great Oprah choice.

Many thanks to Netgalley and Penguin UK for an advance copy in consideration of an honest review.

I pick up this book because of the author of course, I didn't even know it was fiction, but I enjoyed it a lot even if there is also magic involved and the topic is really hard to read. My first knowledge of the Underground railway was a couple of years ago due to the book of Colson Whitehead and now I know little bit more about it, but I find interesting that the both of them, try to handle the subject in some sort of "magical way". Maybe it is because it involves so much sufferance? I do not know, but in my opinion it was a very good book.

Ho richiesto questo libro a Netgalley perché dell'autore avevo giá letto due libri (molto famosi) senza sapere che questo non era un saggio ma un romanzo, ciò nonostante mi é piaciuto parecchio anche se si parla da piú parti di realismo magico e l'argomento schiavitù non é certo di facile gestione. La prima volta che ho sentito parlare di "Ferrovia sotterranea" é stato un paio d'anni fa con il libro di Colson Whitehead e ora che conosco un po' meglio l'argomento trovo comunque interessante che entrambi gli autori abbiano cercato di gestire l'argomento introducendo situazioni e soluzioni fantastiche e in qualche modo magiche. Forse il tutto é dovuto alla pesantezza dell'argomento e a tutta la sofferenza che si porta dietro? Non saprei, comunque un altro bel libro.

THANKS NETGALLEY FOR THE PREVIEW!