The Nickel Boys

by Colson Whitehead · 2019

The Nickel Boys, a 2019 Pulitzer‑Prize‑winning novel by Colson Whitehead, dramatizes a dark chapter of American history. Set in Jim‑Crow‑era Florida, it follows two Black teenagers, Elwood Curtis and Jack Turner, who are unjustly sentenced to the Nickel Academy, a reform school based on the real Dozier School. Through Elwood’s idealism and Turner’s cynicism, the story explores institutional racism, physical and emotional abuse, and the struggle for dignity and redemption, while also offering a thread of hope and human perseverance.