The Water Dancer

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER ΓÇó OPRAHΓÇÖS BOOK CLUB PICK ΓÇó From the National Book AwardΓÇôwinning author of Between the World and Me,a boldly conjured debut novel about a magical gifta devastating lossand an underground war for freedom. ΓÇ£This potent book about AmericaΓÇÖs most disgraceful sin establishes [Ta-Nehisi Coates] as a first-rate novelist.ΓÇ¥ΓÇöSan Francisco Chronicle IN DEVELOPMENT AS A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE ΓÇó Adapted by Ta-Nehisi Coates and Kamilah Forbesproduced by MGMPlan Band Oprah WinfreyΓÇÖs Harpo Films NOMINATED FOR THE NAACP IMAGE AWARD ΓÇó NAMED ONE OF PASTEΓÇÖS BEST NOVELS OF THE DECADE ΓÇó NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY Time ΓÇó NPR ΓÇó The Washington Post ΓÇó Chicago Tribune ΓÇó Vanity Fair ΓÇó Esquire ΓÇó Good Housekeeping ΓÇó Paste ΓÇó Town & Country ΓÇó The New York Public Library ΓÇó Kirkus Reviews ΓÇó Library Journal Young Hiram Walker was born into bondage. When his mother was sold awayHiram was robbed of all memory of herΓÇöbut was gifted with a mysterious power. Years laterwhen Hiram almost drowns in a riverthat same power saves his life. This brush with death births an urgency in Hiram and a daring scheme: to escape from the only home heΓÇÖs ever known. So begins an unexpected journey that takes Hiram from the corrupt grandeur of VirginiaΓÇÖs proud plantations to desperate guerrilla cells in the wildernessfrom the coffin of the Deep South to dangerously idealistic movements in the North. Even as heΓÇÖs enlisted in the underground war between slavers and the enslavedHiramΓÇÖs resolve to rescue the family he left behind endures. This is the dramatic story of an atrocity inflicted on generations of womenmenand childrenΓÇöthe violent and capricious separation of familiesΓÇöand the war they waged to simply make lives with the people they loved. Written by one of todayΓÇÖs most exciting thinkers and writersThe Water Dancer is a propulsivetranscendent work that restores the humanity of those from whom everything was stolen. Praise for The Water Dancer ΓÇ£Ta-Nehisi Coates is the most important essayist in a generation and a writer who changed the national political conversation about race with his 2015 memoirBetween the World and Me. So naturally his debut novel comes with slightly unrealistic expectationsΓÇöand then proceeds to exceed them. The Water Dancer . . . is a work of both staggering imagination and rich historical significance. . . . WhatΓÇÖs most powerful is the way Coates enlists his notions of the fantasticas well as his fluid proseto probe a wound that never seems to heal. . . . Timeless and instantly canon-worthy.ΓÇ¥ΓÇöRolling Stone