The Water Dancer (Oprah's Book Club): A Novel. By Ta-Nehisi Coates One World, 2019, 416 pages ISBN: 978-0-399-59059-7

Abstract

The Water Dancer is a debut novel by the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, Ta-Nehisi Coates. This novel is a story of the dreadful treatment of human beings under slavery, portraying the life of slaves on a tobacco plantation in Virginia, bringing for the separation of children and their parents, separation of husbands and wives, of the pains and sufferings of the people in the Underground Pathways to carry the people to freedom, in the south in the mid-1800s. The writer brings fore the story of the demise of Southern tobacco plantations, resulting in the sale of enslaved. The writer brings fore not only the interactions between the “Quality -the plantation owners” and the “Tasked the enslaved” on a tobacco plantation, but also the mindsets of the Low Whites, who transmit their deprivation to the enslaved blacks, inspired by having a feel of power and dominance. The deep personal thoughts make this book very influential as a black reader can relate to the characters on a realistic level. The story goes deeper into the politics and the freedom of slaves.