“Dread, rage and despair”: Why Colson Whitehead never visited the real-life setting of his new book

Author Colson Whitehead won a Pulitzer Prize in 2017 for his novel “The Underground Railroad” which reimagined the railroad as an actual train transporting slaves to safety. Now, the genre-bending author is turning his attention to the Jim Crow South with his new book “The Nickel Boys.” The novel is set around Nickel Academy, a Florida reform school where two of its black students must navigate violence, abuse and corrupt officials. Source