The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead

“Even in death the boys were trouble.”

Some books are propelled forward by an incredible story. Others are notable for beautiful writing. If you’re lucky, you find a book that has both, like this one. The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead (winner of the 2020 Pulitzer Prize in Fiction) has been on my “To read” list for a while, so when I spied it secondhand, I grabbed it instantly.

It’s the story of the intelligent and sensitive Elwood Curtis, a young black boy growing up in turbulent times – 1960s Florida. With his sights set firmly on a future studying the classics in college, Elwood isn’t a boy who goes looking for trouble – until trouble finds him. He is hauled away to the Nickel Academy, a horrendous “reform school” where black and white children are segregated, and the punishments range from the awful to the unthinkable.

This book grabs you and won’t let go. Whitehead’s elegant prose simmers with outrage as the reader witnesses the outrageous cruelty the “Nickel boys” are subjected to, suffering under a “pitiless constellation of negligence” and Elwood is irrevocably changed by his imprisonment.

This isn’t an uplifting book and nor should it be – but among the terrible brutality the characters experience, there are rays of hope – friendship and immense courage shine through. It’s a compelling story and one I kept thinking about long after the final page