The Nickel Boys
First edition cover | |
| Author | Colson Whitehead |
|---|---|
| Audio read by | JD Jackson Colson Whitehead |
| Cover artist | Neil Libbert (photograph) Oliver Munday (design) |
| Language | English |
| Set in | Florida and New York City |
| Publisher | Doubleday |
Publication date | July 16, 2019 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover) |
| Pages | 224 |
| Awards | Pulitzer Prize for Fiction Kirkus Prize for Fiction Orwell Prize for Political Fiction |
| ISBN | 978-0-385-53707-0 |
| 813.54 | |
| LC Class | PS3573.H4768 N53 2019 |
The Nickel Boys is a 2019 novel by American novelist Colson Whitehead. It is based on the historic Dozier School, a reform school in Florida that operated for 111 years and was revealed as highly abusive. A university investigation found numerous unmarked graves for unrecorded deaths and a history into the late 20th century of emotional and physical abuse of students.
TIME named it one of the best books of the decade. The Nickel Boys won the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Judges of the prize called the novel "a spare and devastating exploration of abuse at a reform school in Jim Crow-era Florida that is ultimately a powerful tale of human perseverance, dignity and redemption." It is Whitehead's second win, following The Underground Railroad in 2017, making him the fourth writer in history to have won the prize for fiction twice. The novel was adapted into the film Nickel Boys (2024), directed and co-written by RaMell Ross.