The Nickel Boys

Whitehead根據史料，重塑美國種族隔離法之下的佛羅里達州少年感化院的黑暗史。

當公民運動蔓延至美國種族隔離法所限制的佛州州府塔拉赫希的黑人區時，Elwood Curtis便將金恩博士的話記在心裡：他 "跟其他人一樣地好 "。雖然被父母拋棄，但是祖母還是將他扶養成循規蹈矩的老實孩子，即將進入當地的黑人學校念書。但是對一個成長於1960年代早期的種族隔離法之下的黑人男孩，一個無心的錯就足以摧毀他的未來。Elwood被判有罪，送交至名為 "鎳幣學院 "的感化院接受教育，這個感化院所聲稱的任務是：提供 "體力的、心智的、與道德的訓練 "，讓這些犯錯的男孩們在他們的管理下，成為 "受人敬重且誠實的男人 "。

事實上，鎳幣學院充斥的只有恐怖，那些敗德的學院職員鞭笞並性侵學員，腐敗的官員與當地人偷搶食物與物資，任何反抗的男孩可能就此消失。在如此惡劣的環境中，Elwood始終懷抱金恩博士擲地有聲的主張 – “即便將我們關進監牢，我們依舊愛你。”Elwood的朋友Turner覺得，他比天真還糟糕，因為世界如此扭曲，唯一存活的方式就是欺瞞與避免任何麻煩。

Elwood的理想與Turner懷疑主義之間的張力所導致的決定，在後世不斷的反響迴盪，男孩們在鎳幣學院所忍受的事物，也決定了他們的命運。

In this Pulitzer Prize-winning, New York Times bestselling follow-up to The Underground Railroad, Colson Whitehead brilliantly dramatizes another strand of American history through the story of two boys unjustly sentenced to a hellish reform school in Jim Crow-era Florida.
 
When Elwood Curtis, a black boy growing up in 1960s Tallahassee, is unfairly sentenced to a juvenile reformatory called the Nickel Academy, he finds himself trapped in a grotesque chamber of horrors. Elwood’s only salvation is his friendship with fellow “delinquent” Turner, which deepens despite Turner’s conviction that Elwood is hopelessly naive, that the world is crooked, and that the only way to survive is to scheme and avoid trouble. As life at the Academy becomes ever more perilous, the tension between Elwood’s ideals and Turner’s skepticism leads to a decision whose repercussions will echo down the decades.
 
Based on the real story of a reform school 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 and “should further cement Whitehead as one of his generation's best " (Entertainment Weekly).