If you liked
Books like The Nickel Boys
by Colson Whitehead
The Nickel Boys is Colson Whitehead's Pulitzer winner, based on a real Florida reform school where boys were brutalized and buried in unmarked graves. It is spare, restrained and gut-wrenching. If you want more unflinching fiction about American racial history, these are the picks.
The shortlist
What to read next
The Underground Railroadby Colson Whitehead
“The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead 2016 review. Cora, a slave on a Georgia plantation, escapes north via an actual underground railroad, a literalized version of the metaphor. Pulitzer Prize 2017 and the National Book Award winner that defined the contemporary Black literary moment.”
Belovedby Toni Morrison
“Beloved by Toni Morrison 1987 review. Sethe, a former slave living in Reconstruction-era Ohio, is haunted by the daughter she killed to save from slavery. Pulitzer Prize 1988 and one of the canonical American novels of the late twentieth century.”
Sing, Unburied, Singby Jesmyn Ward
“Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward 2017 review. A thirteen-year-old biracial boy and his drug-addicted mother drive to Parchman Penitentiary. National Book Award winner.”
Just Mercyby Bryan Stevenson
“Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson 2014 review. The Equal Justice Initiative founder's memoir of his Alabama capital-case work. Carnegie Medal winner and the basis for the 2019 film.”
Homegoingby Yaa Gyasi
“Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi 2016 review. Seven generations of two half-sister bloodlines, one in Ghana and one in America, from eighteenth-century Fanteland to present-day Stanford. Gyasi's debut and one of the canonical contemporary American diaspora novels.”
The Heaven & Earth Grocery Storeby James McBride
“The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride 2023 review. A 1972 skeleton found at the bottom of a Pottstown, Pennsylvania well sends the novel back to a 1930s neighborhood where Black, Jewish, and immigrant families lived alongside each other. The most important American novel of 2023.”
FAQ
Common questions about The Nickel Boys read-alikes
- I want more Colson Whitehead.
- The Underground Railroad is the one, his other Pulitzer winner, reimagining the escape network as a literal railroad. Two Pulitzers back to back, both essential, both looking straight at what The Nickel Boys documents.
- What is the closest match in the catalog?
- Beloved by Toni Morrison and Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward. Both are haunted, lyrical novels about the way America's racial history refuses to stay in the past. Ward writes directly in Morrison's lineage, and so, more quietly, does Whitehead.
- I want the true-story side of this.
- Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson is the non-fiction companion, an account of fighting for people the justice system threw away, including men on death row. It is the real-world argument behind The Nickel Boys' fiction.
- I want the multi-generational sweep.
- Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi traces a family from eighteenth-century Ghana to the present, and The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride finds warmth and community in a hard mid-century neighborhood. Both widen the lens on the history.
The original