- Hardcover: 416 pages
- Publisher: Hamish Hamilton (6 Feb. 2020)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0241325250
- ISBN-13: 978-0241325254
- Product Dimensions: 16.2 x 3.7 x 24 cm
Synopsis
Hiram Walker is born into bondage on a Virginia plantation. But he is also born gifted with a mysterious power that he won’t discover until he is almost a man, when he risks everything for a chance to escape. One fateful decision will carry him away from his makeshift plantation family – his adoptive mother, Thena, a woman of few words and many secrets, and his beloved, angry Sophia – and into the covert heart of the underground war on slavery.
Hidden amidst the corrupt grandeur of white plantation society, exiled as guerrilla cells in the wilderness, buried in the coffin of the deep South and agitating for utopian ideals in the North, there exists a widespread network of secret agents working to liberate the enslaved. Hiram joins their ranks and learns fast but in his heart he yearns to return to his own still-enslaved family, to topple the plantation that was his first home. But to do so, he must first master his unique power and reclaim the story of his greatest loss.
Review
The Water Dancer is a book I have been impatiently waiting for since last year when it was chosen for Oprah Winfrey’s Book Club. Hiram Walker, is part of the Tasked, the slaves, but his father is Quality, the owner of the plantation he works on, and the man who sold his mother. Taken in by Thena, he finds himself working at the big house looking after his brother Maynard. It is there he meets Sophia, beautiful, angry and mistress to Walker’s brother. When he gets the chance to escape he has to leave his adoptive mother Thena and Sophia but has the opportunity for working for the Underground, and helping others like himself. But, Hiram has a power, one he can’t fully access but can be useful to the Underground and their work. As Hiram works to help others he meets Harriett who can help him focus and remember, which is the key to his power. Hiram’s story, and that of those he meets are powerful, and remind us of the harsh reality of slavery, and the atrocities committed by those in charge.
The Water Dancer was everything I expected and more. The writing is beautiful, lyrical and the story told very powerful. This is set during the period when slavery was still legal in the South, but the North had abolished it. The Tobacco plantations were starting to fail, and to make money the masters were selling slaves, and sending them to work for harsher masters and appalling conditions. The selling of slaves also split families, husband from wife, mother from child, which is what happened to Hiram. There are so many shocking stories in this book of the slaves that Hiram meets whilst working for the Underground, where even those free slaves can be kidnapped and sold back in the South. Those working for the Underground continually put their own lives in danger to help others escape this abusive regime, and maybe reconnect with family.
The first person narrative of Hiram adds to the power and impact of his story. From the start you know there is something special about Hiram, something you can’t put you finger on but it is there, and it has saved his life. It is through his work with the Underground that he realises the importance of remembering his past, his mother before she was sold, her story, and that of his ancestors, and that this is the key to his power. Memory plays an important role in The Water Dancer, memories of those who are lost, those you have been forcibly separated from, and your ancestors history. As the Underground helps slaves run to a new life in North America the questions of what it means to be free are asked. Are we ever truly free?, we are all living under rules and laws of the society we live in and in Hiram’s case, he may no longer be a slave but finds himself tied to the rules of the Underground.
The Water Dancer is one of the most powerful books I have read. The stories that are told are shocking, of families divided, people sold and the cruelty experienced, but there is hope for those saved by the work of the courageous Underground. Ta-Nehisi Coates writes with understanding and knowledge and his beautiful lyrical prose drew me in and made this a compelling and enjoyable read. This book was well worth waiting for, and will stay with me for a long time; a stunning and emotional read.
I would like to thank Hamish Hamilton/Penguin Books for my advanced copy of The Water Dancer in return for my honest review.
