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    The Water Dancer: A Novel
    Unavailable
    The Water Dancer: A Novel
    Unavailable
    The Water Dancer: A Novel
    Audiobook14 hours

    The Water Dancer: A Novel

    Written by Ta-Nehisi Coates

    Narrated by Joe Morton

    4.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    From the National Book Award-winning author of Between the World and Me, a boldly conjured debut novel about a magical gift, a devastating loss, and an underground war for freedom.

    Young Hiram Walker was born into bondage. When his mother was sold away, Hiram was robbed of all memory of her—but was gifted with a mysterious power. Years later, when Hiram almost drowns in a river, that same power saves his life. This brush with death births an urgency in Hiram and a daring scheme: to escape from the only home he's ever known.

    So begins an unexpected journey that takes Hiram from the corrupt grandeur of Virginia's proud plantations to desperate guerrilla cells in the wilderness, from the coffin of the Deep South to dangerously idealistic movements in the North. Even as he's enlisted in the underground war between slavers and the enslaved, Hiram's resolve to rescue the family he left behind endures.

    This is the dramatic story of an atrocity inflicted on generations of women, men, and children—the violent and capricious separation of families—and the war they waged to simply make lives with the people they loved. Written by one of today's most exciting thinkers and writers, The Water Dancer is a propulsive, transcendent work that restores the humanity of those from whom everything was stolen.

    Editor's Note

    Oprah’s top five…

    Oprah loves this book. She says it’s one of the best books she’s ever read. It’s in her top five of all time! She loves it so much, she picked it to kick off her revamped Oprah Book Club. In his first novel, Ta-Nehisi Coates, known for his National Book Award-winning memoir “Between the World and Me,” and his powerful collection of essays “We Were Eight Years in Power,” conjures up an enthralling story that soars with suspense, tragedy, and fantasy, all the while grounded by the love of family.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateSep 24, 2019
    ISBN9780525494850
    Unavailable
    The Water Dancer: A Novel
    Author

    Ta-Nehisi Coates

    Ta-Nehisi Coates is a distinguished writer in residence at NYU’s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute. He is the author of the bestselling books The Beautiful Struggle, We Were Eight Years in Power, and Between The World And Me, which won the National Book Award in 2015. Ta-Nehisi is a recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship. He is also the current author of the Marvel comics The Black Panther and Captain America.

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    Reviews for The Water Dancer

    4.5/5

    270 ratings26 reviews

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    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      Such a great story! This book had me anticipating each chapter!
    • 5/5
      Couldn’t put it down. I was transformed into the times of the author as he takes me through this incredible journey of love and survival. As a book lover, this was a nice little treat! Thanks!
    • 5/5
      Having finished the audio book, I am SO glad I listened as opposed to read for the first time. This is spoken word, song, and incredible life in the narration.
      I plan to read it next, as there were so many passages that I want to highlight, learn and keep with me.
      A masterpiece.
    • 5/5
      It was good, very well written. I enjoyed the how they showed the relationships between each individual it was well done
    • 5/5
      The language is extremely vivid and nuanced. What a fantastic novel.
    • 5/5
      This was an amazing story! What a gift!
    • 5/5
      Really a captivating book, Really shows that we are all in this together. A universal struggle.
    • 5/5
      A combination of painful and redemptive history, love and magic. More moving than i can articulate. Bursting with imagery and imagination. The writing is nothing short of blessed. A human revelation.
    • 5/5
      Simply amazing. Great read. Carefully crafted to immerse you into the novel.
    • 5/5
      This was an eloquent, compelling and revealing novel.
      A page turner!
    • 5/5
      Excellent!! Totally immersive! Slavery told from a unique and different perspective.
    • 5/5
      This book is masterfully written. I’ve always enjoyed Coates’s non-fiction writing, thoughtful and poetic as it is. But for some reason I was unprepared for the gorgeous, romantic, brilliant prose in this novel, which tells the story of an enslaved young man in antebellum Virginia with powers beyond his imagination, the scope of which he learns over the course of the book as he experiences lessons in what freedom truly means.

      This is one of those books I wish I’d not yet read so I could read again. The audio version is performed by Joe Morton, who does a ridiculously incredible job of telling this story. I encourage everyone to both sight read and experience the audiobook to be truly blessed by a life-affirming story. There’s also, as most amazing books present, quite a beautiful love story that acts as the main story’s through-line.

      Well done, Ta-Nehisi. ??
    • 5/5
      This is just some great fiction that offers an excellent opportunity to experience and understand how slavery really worked in the Antebellum South while enjoying some imaginative fiction about what may have happened between the oppressor and the oppressed.
    • 5/5
      This book would be a Pulitzer contender if Colson Whitehead‘s underground railroad had not already won in 2016 with a book which covers much the same material. This is a marvelous book full of depth richly brought characters magical realism and a complex plot. I highly recommend this book to any readers of historical fiction.
    • 5/5
      Amazing storytelling. This book is a gift. It will move you to exam our history and our humanity.
    • 5/5
      It was a Great book. Enjoyed it beginning to end!
    • 4/5
      The writing was poetic. I enjoyed the audio version. Also I appreciated reading about the under ground railroad.
    • 5/5
      This novel blew my mind!!! So riveting, a must read!
    • 5/5
      I love to read books that change minds, hearts and lives and Mr. Coates has surely done that for me with The Water Dancer. This is a book I will never forget and will recommend this to everyone. The writing is beautiful and the plot well thought out. The characters are all so believable and add such a speck of magic to the realities of a time of hardship. Everything about this book is wonderful, but the one thing that stands out is how Ta-Nehisi managed to let the reader imagine the present through the past. This book is not just a history of Black Slavery in America, but a look into the emotional pain that hardly any historian has to touched upon. A pain so deep that can still be witnessed no matter how long it has been that a piece paper has condemned slavery here.
      I am a White Latina, and this book has spoken to me on so many levels and raised so many questions of my identity and what I stand for, which I am very grateful for.
    • 5/5
      An incredible, soul shaking read. So many life and history lessons. A true classic I will pass down to my generations. Thank you ancestors.
    • 5/5
      Great book from beginning to end! Amazing narrative with factual elements.
    • 5/5
      This book was amazing! Really tied together some interesting points about Virginia history. I’ve lived in Virginia for over a decade and being from Illinois originally, the histories are very different. I recently visited the Harriet Tubman museum on the eastern shore of Maryland and although fictional, this book is spot on with what I learned during my visit. As an adult, I’ve learned so much about the black history I was never taught in school. I hope there’s a sequel so we can find out what happened to Hiram, Thena and Lockless!
    • 5/5
      Excellent book. Not at all what I expected but pleasantly surprised.
    • 4/5
      Following the sad story of slaves and the blessings of the underground
    • 5/5
      Simply amazing... This is truly a must read. Coates beautifully wove together a story of struggle and triumph.
    • 5/5
      Well written. The stories take you in...arguably one of the best slave story I have read. The book Picks up from the underground railway by Coloson Whitehead.

      1 person found this helpful