9 Best historical books like The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead

Cover of The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead

The Underground Railroad

By: Colson Whitehead

3.87

Format: 288 pages, Hardcover

Cora is a slave on a cotton plantation in Georgia. Life is hellish for all the slaves but especiall…

If you liked the historical plot in The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead , here is a list of 9 books like this:

Cover of Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates

1. Between the World and Me

By: Ta-Nehisi Coates

4.40

Format: 152 pages, Hardcover

“This is your country, this is your world, this is your body, and you must find some way to live wi… read more

Similar categories in Ta-Nehisi Coates's Between the World and Me book and Colson Whitehead's The Underground Railroad

  • race
  • african american
  • audiobook
"Soft or hard, love was an act of heroism."

-Ta-Nehisi Coates, Between the World and Me

"My work is to give you what I know of my own particular path while allowing you to walk your own."

-Ta-Nehisi Coates, Between the World and Me

"I would not have you descend into your own dream. I would have you be a conscious citizen of this terrible and beautiful world."

-Ta-Nehisi Coates, Between the World and Me

"You are growing into consciousness, and my wish for you is that you feel no need to constrict yourself to make other people comfortable."

-Ta-Nehisi Coates, Between the World and Me

Cover of Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

2. Pachinko

By: Min Jin Lee

4.33

Format: 496 pages, Kindle Edition

In the early 1900s, teenaged Sunja, the adored daughter of a crippled fisherman, falls for a wealth… read more

Similar categories in Min Jin Lee's Pachinko book and Colson Whitehead's The Underground Railroad

  • literary fiction
  • historical
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • audiobook
"A woman’s lot is to suffer."

-Min Jin Lee, Pachinko

"No one is clean. Living makes you dirty."

-Min Jin Lee, Pachinko

"Life makes you pay...everybody pays something"

-Min Jin Lee, Pachinko

"Learn everything. Fill your mind with knowledge—it’s the only kind of power no one can take away from you."

-Min Jin Lee, Pachinko

Cover of Americanah by None, Jashar Awan

3. Americanah

By: None , Jashar Awan

3.75

Format: None pages, Hardcover

Fearless, gripping, at once darkly funny and tender, spanning three continents and numerous lives, … read more

Similar categories in None's Americanah book and Colson Whitehead's The Underground Railroad

  • literary fiction
  • race
  • fiction
Cover of The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen

4. The Sympathizer

By: Viet Thanh Nguyen

3.83

Format: 28 pages, Hardcover

The winner of the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, as well as five other awards, The Sympathizeris … read more

Similar categories in Viet Thanh Nguyen's The Sympathizer book and Colson Whitehead's The Underground Railroad

  • historical
  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
Cover of Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward

5. Sing, Unburied, Sing

By: Jesmyn Ward

3.81

Format: 343 pages, Hardcover

Winner of the National Book Award for Fiction 2017 A searing and profound Southern odyssey. In Jesm… read more

Similar categories in Jesmyn Ward's Sing, Unburied, Sing book and Colson Whitehead's The Underground Railroad

  • literary fiction
  • race
  • fiction
  • african american
  • audiobook
Cover of Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders

6. Lincoln in the Bardo

By: George Saunders

4.17

Format: None pages, Hardcover

In his long-awaited first novel, American master George Saunders delivers his most original, transc… read more

Similar categories in George Saunders's Lincoln in the Bardo book and Colson Whitehead's The Underground Railroad

  • literary fiction
  • historical
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • audiobook
Cover of An American Marriage by Tayari Jones

7. An American Marriage

By: Tayari Jones

4.47

Format: 310 pages, Hardcover

Newlyweds Celestial and Roy are the embodiment of both the American Dream and the New South. He is … read more

Similar categories in Tayari Jones's An American Marriage book and Colson Whitehead's The Underground Railroad

  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • audiobook
Cover of The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead

8. The Underground Railroad

By: Colson Whitehead

3.87

Format: 288 pages, Hardcover

Cora is a slave on a cotton plantation in Georgia. Life is hellish for all the slaves but especiall… read more

Similar categories in Colson Whitehead's The Underground Railroad book and Colson Whitehead's The Underground Railroad

  • literary fiction
  • race
  • historical
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • african american
  • audiobook

9. All the Light We Cannot See

By: Anthony Doerr

3.68

Format: 189 pages, Hardcover

A stunningly ambitious and beautiful novel about a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths c… read more

Similar categories in Anthony Doerr's All the Light We Cannot See book and Colson Whitehead's The Underground Railroad

10. Beloved

By: Toni Morrison

4.24

Format: 96 pages, Paperback

Staring unflinchingly into the abyss of slavery, this spellbinding novel transforms history into a … read more

Similar categories in Toni Morrison's Beloved book and Colson Whitehead's The Underground Railroad

11. Homegoing

By: Yaa Gyasi

4.15

Format: None pages, Hardcover

A novel of breathtaking sweep and emotional power that traces three hundred years in Ghana and alon… read more

Similar categories in Yaa Gyasi's Homegoing book and Colson Whitehead's The Underground Railroad

Cover of Trust by Hernan Diaz

12. Trust

By: Hernan Diaz

3.83

Format: 402 pages, Hardcover

10 hours, 21 minutes From an award-winning chronicler of our nation's history and its legends co… read more

Similar categories in Hernan Diaz's Trust book and Colson Whitehead's The Underground Railroad

  • literary fiction
  • historical
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • audiobook
"Where there's a ventriloquist, there's a dummy."

-Hernan Diaz, Trust

"Chaos is a vortex that spins faster with each thing it swallows."

-Hernan Diaz, Trust

"Silence between 2 is always shared. But 1 of the 2 owns it and shares it with the other."

-Hernan Diaz, Trust

"Sleeplessness kept claiming her nights, and she used books as shields against the onslaught of her abstract terrors."

-Hernan Diaz, Trust

Cover of Tom Lake by Ann Patchett

13. Tom Lake

By: Ann Patchett

3.99

Format: 309 pages, Hardcover

In this beautiful and moving novel about family, love, and growing up, Ann Patchett once again prov… read more

Similar categories in Ann Patchett's Tom Lake book and Colson Whitehead's The Underground Railroad

  • audiobook
  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
"You can’t pretend this [Covid] isn’t happening,"

-Ann Patchett, Tom Lake

"In the summer the pear trees were fine. In the summer, all that is hideous about a pear tree is hidden by leaves and pears. But once those disguises were removed they were nothing but acres of murder…"

-Ann Patchett, Tom Lake

"Hazel, listen to me. I'm going to tell you something important, you need to be brave.' I then explained to the dog how I have told myself for so many years that my career fell apart because I wasn't …"

-Ann Patchett, Tom Lake

"It's as if someone bought all the diamonds at Tiffany's, and crushed them into dust, then spread that dust across the water so that it sifts down evenly, filtering through the shards of light that cu…"

-Ann Patchett, Tom Lake

Cover of James by Percival Everett

14. James

By: Percival Everett

4.54

Format: 303 pages, Hardcover

A brilliant, action-packed reimagining of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn , both harrowing and f… read more

Similar categories in Percival Everett's James book and Colson Whitehead's The Underground Railroad

  • literary fiction
  • race
  • historical
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • african american
  • audiobook
Cover of There There by Tommy Orange

15. There There

By: Tommy Orange

3.98

Format: 294 pages, Hardcover

Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780525520375. Tommy Orange's wondrous and shattering novel foll… read more

Similar categories in Tommy Orange's There There book and Colson Whitehead's The Underground Railroad

  • literary fiction
  • race
  • fiction
  • audiobook
"Everything is new and doomed."

-Tommy Orange, There There

"Being Indian has never been about returning to the land. The land is everywhere or nowhere."

-Tommy Orange, There There

"...nothing is original, everything comes from something that came before, which was once nothing. Everything is new and doomed."

-Tommy Orange, There There

"We've all been through a lot we don't understand in a world made to either break us or make us so hard we can't break even when it's what we need most to do."

-Tommy Orange, There There

Cover of The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James   McBride

16. The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store

By: James McBride

4.00

Format: 385 pages, Hardcover

In 1972, when workers in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, were digging the foundations for a new housing de… read more

Similar categories in James McBride's The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store book and Colson Whitehead's The Underground Railroad

  • literary fiction
  • historical
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • african american
  • audiobook
Cover of Yellowface by R.F. Kuang

17. Yellowface

By: R.F. Kuang

3.77

Format: 336 pages, Hardcover

White lies. Dark humor. Deadly consequences… Bestselling sensation Juniper Song is not who she says… read more

Similar categories in R.F. Kuang's Yellowface book and Colson Whitehead's The Underground Railroad

  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • audiobook
"The truth is fluid, there is always another way to spin the story."

-R.F. Kuang, Yellowface

"They tell authors never to look at Goodreads, but nobody follows that advice—none of us can resist the urge to know how our work is being received."

-R.F. Kuang, Yellowface

"Writing is the closest thing we have to real magic. Writing is creating something out of nothing, is opening doors to other lands. Writing gives you power to shape your own world when the real one hu…"

-R.F. Kuang, Yellowface

Cover of Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

18. Chain-Gang All-Stars

By: Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

4.14

Format: 367 pages, Hardcover

Two top women gladiators fight for their freedom within a depraved private prison system not so far… read more

Similar categories in Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah's Chain-Gang All-Stars book and Colson Whitehead's The Underground Railroad

  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • audiobook
"They were all humans, and yet they had completely different ideas about what humanity meant."

-Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, Chain-Gang All-Stars

"My brother-in-law is an alien. I have a bunch of alien friends. I can't be racist," Randy Mac continued."

-Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, Chain-Gang All-Stars

"An absurd thing for the murderous state to plead for, but, as always, the massive violence of the state was “justice,"

-Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, Chain-Gang All-Stars

"...despite how hard it was, she wasn't afraid with love. She knew how to wield it, how to grow it, and how to receive it."

-Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, Chain-Gang All-Stars

Cover of Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann

19. Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI

By: David Grann

4.14

Format: 416 pages, Paperback

In the 1920s, the richest people per capita in the world were members of the Osage Nation in Oklaho… read more

Similar categories in David Grann's Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI book and Colson Whitehead's The Underground Railroad

  • historical
  • audiobook
"An Indian Affairs agent said, 'The question will suggest itself, which of these people are the savages?"

-David Grann, Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI

"The Osage elders sang the traditional songs for the dead, only now the songs seemed for the living, for those who had to endure this world of killing."

-David Grann, Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI

Cover of Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

20. Demon Copperhead

By: Barbara Kingsolver

4.50

Format: 560 pages, Hardcover

"Anyone will tell you the born of this world are marked from the get-out, win or lose." Set in t… read more

Similar categories in Barbara Kingsolver's Demon Copperhead book and Colson Whitehead's The Underground Railroad

  • audiobook
  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
"A kid is a terrible thing to be, in charge of nothing."

-Barbara Kingsolver, Demon Copperhead

"I can still feel in my bones how being mad was the one thing holding me together."

-Barbara Kingsolver, Demon Copperhead

"Counting on Jesus to save the day is no more real than sending up the Batman signal."

-Barbara Kingsolver, Demon Copperhead

"life is a wild, impetuous ride. There could be good shit up ahead, don’t rule it out."

-Barbara Kingsolver, Demon Copperhead

Cover of A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles

21. A Gentleman in Moscow

By: Amor Towles

4.33

Format: 462 pages, Paperback

The mega-bestseller with more than 2 million readers—Now a Paramount+ with Showtime series starring… read more

Similar categories in Amor Towles's A Gentleman in Moscow book and Colson Whitehead's The Underground Railroad

  • literary fiction
  • historical
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • audiobook
"The only difference between everybody and nobody is all the shoes"

-Amor Towles, A Gentleman in Moscow

"...the tenure of friendships has never been governed by the passage of time."

-Amor Towles, A Gentleman in Moscow

"I assure you, my dear, were you to play the piano on the moon, I would hear every chord."

-Amor Towles, A Gentleman in Moscow

"History is the business of identifying momentous events from the comfort of a high-back chair."

-Amor Towles, A Gentleman in Moscow

16 must-read fiction books like The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead

Transform Your Habits

Pachinko

Min Jin Lee

4.33

Transform Your Habits

Americanah

None , Jashar Awan

3.75

Transform Your Habits

The Sympathizer

Viet Thanh Nguyen

3.83

Transform Your Habits

Sing, Unburied, Sing

Jesmyn Ward

3.81

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20 Best fiction books like There There by Tommy Orange

Transform Your Habits

The Berry Pickers

Amanda Peters

4.14

Transform Your Habits

Tom Lake

Ann Patchett

3.99

Transform Your Habits

Let Us Descend

Jesmyn Ward

3.70

Transform Your Habits

James

Percival Everett

4.54

View all the books

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