Waiting on Wednesday [#34]

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Jill @ Breaking the Spine. It’s a tremendously fun thing to be because you have an excuse to gallivant through the 2016 releases (and probably buy far too many books). It’s also fantastic fun to head over to the official page and check out the link up to what everyone else is waiting on!

This week I’m waiting on . . .

Underground Railroad
by Colson Whitehead

Genre: Historical Fiction
Author: Colson Whitehead
Publisher: Doubleday
Pages: 310 {hardback}

RELEASE DATE: 13th September 2016

// PRE-ORDER //

Cora is a slave on a cotton plantation in Georgia. Life is hellish for all slaves, but Cora is an outcast even among her fellow Africans, and she is coming into womanhood; even greater pain awaits. Caesar, a recent arrival from Virginia, tells her of the Underground Railroad and they plot their escape. Like Gulliver, Cora encounters different worlds on each leg of her journey.

I’m really curious to read this book and see how it tackles the topic of African slavery. I’m currently doing a course on African history so of course this topic has come up. I’m not entirely sure what to expect going by the blurb – I think it’s going to be a moving story and very powerful, I just really hope that it’s done right.

I hope that I enjoy this as much as I’m expecting to because I find this such an engrossing period in history to study because it has layers and layers of complexities and so many things to analyse. I’d love to come away from this book having learnt something new so that’s the challenge that I propose to it!

// GOODREADS // PRE-ORDER //