The Nickel Boys
Colson Whitehead • 2019
Devastation Rating
injustice trauma literary fiction historical survival poverty
Our Take
Based on the real Dozier School for Boys — where boys were tortured, murdered, buried in unmarked graves. Whitehead writes Elwood's goodness and what the world does to goodness with restraint that makes the violence worse. The final revelation reframes everything. A novel that should not have had to be written.
Appears In
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