The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead tells the story of Elwood Curtis, a Black young man growing up in Tallahassee during the 1950s and 60s. Elwood is surrounded by the injustice of segregation but inspired by the early Civil Rights Movement. Raised with the love of his strict and religious grandmother, Elwood is a serious hard-working boy who is unable to turn a blind eye to injustice. It sets him apart from the other boys in his neighborhood but puts him in danger when he’s sent to a corrupt reform school.
Tag: <span>fiction</span>
A review of “Under the Udala Trees” by Chinelo Okparanta, which begins during the Biafra War in Nigeria in the late 1960s. The book tells the story of Ijeoma, a middle-class girl living with her parents while trying to survive air raids and food shortages. And her journey to define and accept herself following the end of the war.