Episode 1
Colson Whitehead's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel about slavery in America. Read by Clarke Peters.
"What if the underground railroad was a literal railroad? And what if each state, as a runaway slave was going north, was a different state of American possibility, an alternative America?"
Colson Whitehead's inventive novel follows Cora and Caesar as they escape from a Georgia cotton plantation and run north in pursuit of freedom, aided by the stationmasters and conductors of the Underground Railroad. This brilliant and at times brutal novel about the history of slavery and racism in America, won the US National Book Award for Fiction in 2016 and the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2017.
Read by Clarke Peters (The Wire, Treme, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri)
Abridged in ten parts by Sara Davies. Produced by Mair Bosworth for Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Audio in Bristol.
First broadcast on Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4 in February 2017.
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Credits
| Role | Contributor |
|---|---|
| Reader | Clarke Peters |
| Author | Colson Whitehead |
| Abridger | Sara Davies |
| Producer | Mair Bosworth |
Broadcasts
Mon 20 Feb 2017 22:45Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4- Mon 7 Oct 2019 14:00Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4 Extra
- Tue 8 Oct 2019 02:00Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4 Extra
What was the Underground Railroad?
The secret network that enabled thousands of people escape from slavery.