The Underground Railroad

2017普立茲小說獎得主2016美國國家書卷獎小說類得主◎歐普拉讀書俱樂部年度選書◎出版人週刊推薦2016秋季最令人期待的文學新作◎科克斯書評好評推薦「世上沒有一件事能取代閱讀一本好書的經驗－－透過文字和語言，帶領我們前往未曾踏過土地與國度。有時，你會碰到一本能觸及你靈魂深處的好書，它會就此在你心上住下。我剛讀完Colson Whitehead的新作The Underground Railroad，這就是一本那樣的書。一本曠世傑作，而我鮮少會如此稱讚一本書。」－－歐普拉「每一件物品都有其自身的價值…然而，存在於美國的怪象是，有一群人，明明是人，卻是有如物品般的存在。」－－ Underground Railroad自由是，當你越使勁盯著它看，它就會越快速地從你的眼前逃離…南北戰爭前的喬治亞州，Cora是一名黑奴，在主人的棉花田工作。在那個年代，所有的奴隸都是主人的私有財，主人有權力隨性買賣，任意鞭打。棉花田內黑奴都過著水生火熱的生活，但Cora的情況卻比大多數人來的艱困－－母親是逃跑黑奴的事實，讓她已受到特別注意，而正值花樣年華的年紀，更讓她深陷未知的危險當中。然而，當另一名初來乍到的黑奴Caesar告訴她，有一條地下鐵路可以送她前往自由北方，Cora一無反顧的決定跟隨Caesar，從此踏上這條危機四伏的逃亡之路。Cora與Caesar一路向北，原以為每到一站，就離自由近一些，但現實總是事與願違－－看似對黑奴較友善南卡羅萊納州，一度讓兩人想就此落腳，但偶然間得知先前逃往此地的黑奴命運，迫使兩人連夜逃離。就這樣，兩人隨著地下鐵路穿梭各州尋找自由，卻陷入一場猶如格列佛周遊列國般的迷航－－Cora所到的各個州，都有其對黑奴的獨特看法與處置的態度。地下鐵路帶來的是究竟是救贖，還是幻滅？前路茫茫的同時，還有受命前來緝捕Cora的Ridgeway緊追在後…Cora是否終能成功逃離黑奴身分的桎梏，成為自由的子民？From prize-winning, bestselling author Colson Whitehead, a magnificent tour de force chronicling a young slave's adventures as she makes a desperate bid for freedom in the antebellum South Cora is a slave on a cotton plantation in Georgia. Life is hell for all the slaves, but especially bad for Cora; an outcast even among her fellow Africans, she is coming into womanhood where even greater pain awaits. When Caesar, a recent arrival from Virginia, tells her about the Underground Railroad, they decide to take a terrifying risk and escape. Matters do not go as planned Cora kills a young white boy who tries to capture her. Though they manage to find a station and head north, they are being hunted.In Whitehead s ingenious conception, the Underground Railroad is no mere metaphor engineers and conductors operate a secret network of tracks and tunnels beneath the Southern soil. Cora and Caesar s first stop is South Carolina, in a city that initially seems like a haven. But the city s placid surface masks an insidious scheme designed for its black denizens. And even worse: Ridgeway, the relentless slave catcher, is close on their heels. Forced to flee again, Cora embarks on a harrowing flight, state by state, seeking true freedom.Like the protagonist of "Gulliver s Travels, " Cora encounters different worlds at each stage of her journey hers is an odyssey through time as well as space. As Whitehead brilliantly re-creates the unique terrors for black people in the pre Civil War era, his narrative seamlessly weaves the saga of America from the brutal importation of Africans to the unfulfilled promises of the present day. "The Underground Railroad" is at once a kinetic adventure tale of one woman s ferocious will to escape the horrors of bondage and a shattering, powerful meditation on the history we all share."