Product Description
This New York Times Notable Book from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Underground Railroad is a brisk, comic tour de force about identity, history, and the adhesive bandage industry.
The town of Winthrop has decided it needs a new name. The resident software millionaire wants to call it New Prospera; the mayor wants to return to the original choice of the founding black settlers; and the town's aristocracy sees no reason to change the name at all. What they need, they realize, is a nomenclature consultant.
And, it turns out, the consultant needs them. But in a culture overwhelmed by marketing, the name is everything and our hero's efforts may result in not just a new name for the town but a new and subtler truth about it as well.
Review
A brilliant, witty, and subtle novel, written in a most engaging style, with tremendous aptness of language and command of plot ―
New York Review of Books
Brilliant. . . . Exhilarating. . . . What keeps you reading this critique of language is its language, and our perverse delight in the ingenious abuse of words -- New York Times
Book Description
By the author of the international bestseller, The Underground Railroad.
From the Back Cover
'Brilliant . . . Exhilarating . . . What keeps you reading this critique of language is its language, and our perverse delight in the ingenious abuse of words' New York TimesThe town of Winthrop has decided it needs a new name. The resident software millionaire wants to call it New Prospera; the mayor wants to return to the original choice of the founding black settlers; and the town's aristocracy sees no reason to change the name at all. What they need, they realize, is a nomenclature consultant. And, it turns out, the consultant needs them. But in a culture overwhelmed by marketing, the name is everything and our hero's efforts may result in not just a new name for the town but a new and subtler truth about it as well.
About the Author
Colson Whitehead is the
Sunday Times bestselling author of
The Underground Railroad,
The Noble Hustle,
Zone One,
Sag Harbor,
The Intuitionist,
John Henry Days,
Apex Hides the Hurt, and one collection of essays,
The Colossus of New York. A Pulitzer Prize winner and a recipient of MacArthur and Guggenheim fellowships, he lives in New York City.
