The Water Dancer (Oprah’s Book Club)

A Novel

By: Ta-Nehisi Coates

Narrated by: Joe Morton

#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 PICTURE • Adapted by Ta-Nehisi Coates and Kamilah Forbes, directed by Nia DaCosta, and produced by MGM, Plan B, and Oprah Winfrey’s Harpo Films

NOMINATED FOR THE NAACP IMAGE AWARD • NAMED ONE OF PASTE’S BEST NOVELS OF THE DECADE • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY Time • NPR • The Washington Post • Chicago Tribune • Vanity Fair • Esquire • Good Housekeeping • Paste • Town & Country • The New York Public Library • Kirkus Reviews • Library Journal

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.

Praise for The Water Dancer

“Ta-Nehisi Coates is the most important essayist in a generation and a writer who changed the national political conversation about race with his 2015 memoir, Between the World and Me. So naturally his debut novel comes with slightly unrealistic expectations—and then proceeds to exceed them. The Water Dancer . . . is a work of both staggering imagination and rich historical significance. . . . What’s most powerful is the way Coates enlists his notions of the fantastic, as well as his fluid prose, to probe a wound that never seems to heal. . . . Timeless and instantly canon-worthy.”—Rolling Stone

Powerful in surprising ways!

Of the 30 books I’ve read so far this year, this is my absolute favorite!!!! The method of storytelling lures you in and quickly gets you committed to seeing the resolution of the story/stories represented. I also love the fact that the entire story shared the impact of a strong part of our cultural history to the history of our country. Aaaand I love the imperfections of each character and how each character grows in their own journey.

“To forgive is irrelevant. To forget is death.”

Highly Recommended!

Loved it all! One of the bestbooks I have ever listened to....highly recommend you download and listen now.

Exceptional and Phenomenal

Held my attention form beginning to end. Had me wanting to follow the story past it's ending. Bravo!

Fabulous Narrator

I was reluctant to experience this book because I hate slave stories. I feel that in my black life I have read and seen enough and the topic upsets and unnerves me. I decided to try it anyway. I'm so glad I listened to it. The narrator kept me entranced in the story and I believe that if I was reading it on my own I would have shut the book at a discomforting time and never reopened it. The story left me a little melancholy, however I looked at the work of taskers and The Underground Railroad through a different lens. I'm grateful for the perspective.

Another slave tale...

I was hoping for more... considering it was an Oprah’s Book Club pick. It started a bit rough for me. And I wonder if I were reading vs listening if I would have been able to better connect to the storyline... overall the mystique of the slave story has been told before and I did not feel this was unique. It did provide some insight to the Underground Railroad - and as a Black American, I valued that perspective and history lesson. I did not enjoy as much the “water travel” phenomenon.

Not what you think!

The beginning will make you think that this story is a little “out there “, but stick with it! One of the best books I’ve ever read! The narrator is also very gifted.

Incredible narration and immersive story

The narrator in particular did an incredible job voicing all the characters distinctly and without mocking their gender differences. And I’ve never read a book quite like this from the perspective of someone who is there

Coltrane on paper

This book is groundbreaking. It drives home the insidiousness of denying someone the memory of who their people are, and the ugliness of denying another’s story. One of the best books I’ve ever read.

Moments of reflection...

A challenging view of slavery from the eyes of the oppressed and its branding.

Awestruck by this beautiful story

The reader and the story were so moving and inspiring I couldn't put it down. I highly recommend this adventure!