
The Water Dancer (Hardback)
Ta-Nehisi Coates (author)- 10+ in stock

Coates’ blazing political and cultural writing is amongst the most intelligent and powerful work of the twenty-first century and, with The Water Dancer, the author of Between the World and Me and We Were Eight Years in Power delivers a debut novel of poetic intensity and righteous anger. Compellingly recounting the clandestine work of abolitionist cells buried in the nineteenth-century Deep South, The Water Dancer is a fearless and profound slice of crusading historical fiction.
The unmissable debut novel by the critically acclaimed author of Between the World and Me and We Were Eight Years in Power - a richly imagined and compulsively page-turning journey to freedom
Hiram Walker is born into bondage on a Virginia plantation. But he is also born gifted with a mysterious power that he won't discover until he is almost a man, when he risks everything for a chance to escape. One fateful decision will carry him away from his makeshift plantation family - his adoptive mother, Thena, a woman of few words and many secrets, and his beloved, angry Sophia - and into the covert heart of the underground war on slavery.
Hidden amidst the corrupt grandeur of white plantation society, exiled as guerrilla cells in the wilderness, buried in the coffin of the deep South and agitating for utopian ideals in the North, there exists a widespread network of secret agents working to liberate the enslaved. Hiram joins their ranks and learns fast but in his heart he yearns to return to his own still-enslaved family, to topple the plantation that was his first home. But to do so, he must first master his unique power and reclaim the story of his greatest loss.
Propulsive, transcendent and blazing with truth, The Water Dancer is a story of oppression and resistance, separation and homecoming. Ta-Nehisi Coates imagines the covert war of an enslaved people in response to a generations-long human atrocity - a war for the right to life, to kin, to freedom.
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
ISBN: 9780241325254
Number of pages: 416
Weight: 685 g
Dimensions: 240 x 162 x 37 mm
MEDIA REVIEWS
'He takes the secret wish of every enslaved person – the ability to magically escape bondage by teleportation – and makes it a reality. A beautifully executed novel.' - The Guardian
'One of the best books I have ever read in my entire life. I haven't felt this way since I first read Beloved ...' - Oprah Winfrey
You may also be interested in...
“Epic and devastating novel .....”
“The Water Dancer” is the debut novel from a journalist and award winning author who is considered one of the leading voices of racial politics in America.
The main character is Hiram Walker , who is a slave with...
More
“A remarkable read”
What a remarkable read, one that I've heard such a lot about, and rightly so.
Hiram is one of the Tasked, a slave, son to a white man, on whose property he works. He has memories, strong memories of times gone...
More

“Powerful slavery narrative with a speculative twist”
Following in the footsteps of Octavia Butler, Toni Morrison and Colson Whitehead, Ta-Nehisi Coates has crafted a poignant and powerful examination of slavery and the underground railroad, with a speculative twist. We... More
Please sign in to write a review
Sign In / Register
Sign In
Download the Waterstones App
Would you like to proceed to the App store to download the Waterstones App?
Click & Collect
Alternatively, for multiple items you may find it easier to add to basket, then pay online and collect in as little as 2 hours, subject to availability.