The Water Dancer

by Ta-Nehisi Coates

Book Overview

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - OPRAH'S BOOK CLUB PICK - 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.

"This potent book about America's most disgraceful sin establishes Ta-Nehisi Coates] as a first-rate novelist."--San Francisco Chronicle

IN DEVELOPMENT AS A MAJOR MOTION...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0399590617
• ISBN13: 9780399590610
• Release Date: November 2020
• Publisher: One World
• Length: 432 Pages
• Weight: 0.74 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.2" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Learning to use the supernatural within you to help others

This book offers many gems for the reader. The author, Coates changes the names of what history told us to call them, the slaves, the slave owners to remind us ,we do not have Stockholm Syndrome. He taught us to think outside of the box of what we were taught to believe. A good narrative offering an original thought to what our ancestors were subjected to in that era where laws were written permitting people to own other people. Coates showed us how to tap into the magic within ❤️.

Beautiful lyrical writing but side characters and other main characters were extremely underdevelope

I hate having to give this book 3 stars. I absolutely loved the first part of this story. The gorgeous, lyrical, emotional, and poetic writing brought tears to my eyes. The author wove a beautiful breath taking story. He created Hiram so well. All the pain and his photographic memory. I felt like I was there, watching every single detail played out. The words were not wasted. But, as much as I loved the lyrical writing and Hiram, the rest of the characters left a lot to be desired. There was little to no development with the other characters in the book. I felt that took away a huge part of the magic. Also, I've read many books about the atrocities of slavery. I think, as lyrical as the writing was, it glossed over the atrocities the characters suffered. Their true pain. The magic realism was wonderful but it definitely took away from the meat of the story.