Los chicos de la Nickel / The Nickel Boys

GANADOR DEL PREMIO PULITZER

Después de El ferrocarril subterráneo, Colson Whitehead gana el Pulitzer por segunda vez con esta estremecedora historia sobre dos amigos que luchan por su supervivencia.

De poco sirve ser un buen estudiante en la Academia Nickel para chicos. Elwood -pobre, huérfano y de raza negra- no tarda en descubrirlo cuando, por un malentendido, le encierran en este reformatorio. Con la ayuda de un buen amigo, este adolescente descubrirá cómo sobrevivir en este lugar que esconde un brutal secreto y una realidad corrupta, respaldada por muchos y obviada por todos.

Basada en el estremecedor caso real de un reformatorio de Florida que estuvo en funcionamiento durante más de un siglo y destrozó la vida de miles de niños, Los chicos de la Nickel es una novela devastadora que, a caballo entre el presente y el final de la segregación racial estadounidense en los años sesenta, muestra la genialidad de un escritor en la cima de su carrera.

ENGLISH DESCRIPTION

WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE

ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR
Time, Esquire, The Washington Post, The Guardian, Slate, NPR, Entertainment Weekly, Vox, Variety, Christian Science Monitor, The Minneapolis Star Tribune, The Dallas Morning News, Literary Hub, BuzzFeed, The New York Public Library

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FINALIST

ONE OF TIME MAGAZINE'S 10 BEST FICTION BOOKS OF THE DECADE

WINNER OF THE KIRKUS PRIZE

LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD

LONGLISTED FOR THE ORWELL PRIZE FOR POLITICAL FICTION 2020 

SHORLISTED FOR THE DUBLIN LITERARY AWARD

In this bravura follow-up to the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award-winning #1 New York Times bestseller The Underground Railroad, Colson Whitehead brilliantly dramatizes another strand of American history through the story of two boys sentenced to a hellish reform school in Jim Crow-era Florida.
 
When Elwood Curtis, a black boy growing up in 1960s Tallahassee, is unfairly sentenced to a juvenile reformatory called the Nickel Academy, he finds himself trapped in a grotesque chamber of horrors. Elwood’s only salvation is his friendship with fellow “delinquent” Turner, which deepens despite Turner’s conviction that Elwood is hopelessly naive, that the world is crooked, and that the only way to survive is to scheme and avoid trouble. As life at the Academy becomes ever more perilous, the tension between Elwood’s ideals and Turner’s skepticism leads to a decision whose repercussions will echo down the decades.
 
Based on the real story of a reform school that operated for 111 years and warped the lives of thousands of children, The Nickel Boys is a devastating, driven narrative that showcases a great American novelist writing at the height of his powers.