The Underground Railroad
American novelist, born 1969. Won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2017 and 2020 and the National Book Award for Fiction in 2016.
The Underground Railroad is a 2016 novel by Colson Whitehead. It won the National Book Award for Fiction in 2016 and the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2017.
In historical fiction, Black American
On 5 of the 14 lists it was eligible for.
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At a glance
- Author
- Colson Whitehead
- First published
- 2016
- Length
- 384 pages (UK paperback)
- Awards
- National Book Award for Fiction winner, 2016
- Pulitzer Prize for Fiction winner, 2017
- Genre
- Historical fiction, Black American, Political, Speculative
Is The Underground Railroad worth reading?
5 of the 14 best-of lists it could have made include it, among them the National Book Award for Fiction and the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.
| List | Place | Original |
|---|---|---|
| Goodreads Choice Awards: Fiction and Historical Fiction winners (Goodreads, 2009-) | Winner | See the list |
| National Book Award for Fiction (winners and finalists) (National Book Foundation, 2016) | Winner | See the list |
| Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (winners and finalists) (Columbia University, 2017) | Winner | See the list |
| The 100 best books of the 21st century (The Guardian, 2019) | No. 30 | See the list |
| The 100 best books of the 21st century (The New York Times, 2024) | No. 7 | See the list |
Best edition of The Underground Railroad
The edition we link to is the Fleet paperback (2017), 384 pages.
- Publisher
- Fleet (paperback, 2017)
- Pages
- 384
- ISBN
- 9780708898406
How critics, prizes and readers rate The Underground Railroad
Prize juries and critics rate it about equally: it earned 50% on prize lists and 49% on critics' lists, against 17% on readers' and booksellers' lists.
Share of the available points it earned on each kind of list it was eligible for. How the scores work
Books like The Underground Railroad
If you liked The Underground Railroad, try Wolf Hall, Midnight's Children or Beloved.
