
The Nickel Boys (Winner 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction)
"Every chapter hits its marks…It is justice.”
New York Times
A July 2019 LibraryReads Pick
A Literary Hub Pick of the Best Reviewed Books This Week
A New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice
A New York Times Bestseller
A #1 Amazon.com bestseller in African American Literature
A BookPage Top Pick for August in Historical Fiction
A Barack Obama Reading List Pick
Longlisted for the 2019 National Book Award for Fiction
Finalist for the 2020 Southern Book Prize for Fiction
Longlisted for the 2020 Aspen Words Literary Prize
An Entertainment Weekly Best Books of the Year selection
A Buzzfeed Best Books of the Year selection
Finalist for the 2019 National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction
Winner of the 2019 Kirkus Prize
A 2020 Audie Award Finalist for Best Male Narration
Winner of an Alex Award
Winner of the Orwell Prize for Fiction
Winner of the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
Shortlisted for the Dublin Literary Award
A Publishers Weekly Best Books of the Year selection
An Amazon Editor’s Top Pick
Winner of ALA Alex Award, 2020
Among shortlisted titles for Dayton Literary Peace Prize for Fiction, 2020
Among shortlisted titles for International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, 2021
Winner of Kirkus Prize for Fiction, 2019
Among shortlisted titles for Los Angeles Times Book Prize, 2019
Among shortlisted titles for National Book Critics Circle Awards, 2019
Winner of Orwell Prize, 2020
Winner of Pulitzer Prize (Fiction), 2020
NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE NOMINATED FOR AN ACADEMY AWARD® FOR BEST PICTURE AND DIRECTED BY ACADEMY AWARD® NOMINEE RAMELL ROSS
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).
Praise
