


"Descriptions of slave patrollers are eerily similar to the way we would describe being policed in our neighbourhoods today," Whitehead pointed out. With just a flip through the news today it's easy to see what Whitehead means. "I think it's about American history and how different ideas about race have changed or stayed the same over the last century and a half, so it's not strictly a historical novel," he explained. For Whitehead, this story stretches beyond its literal meaning. The bestselling author's new novel is a tale of a slave named Cora who decides to flee her plantation in Georgia. "I was sort of a callow gen-Xer," he explained, of why he delayed writing The Underground Railroad for over a decade. "I think in order to do the book justice, I needed a little more maturity and just a few more books under my belt." Colson Whitehead had an idea for a book in 2000, but was too scared to write it.
