In this version of America, slavery continues in four states called "the Hard Four." On the trail of a runaway known as Jackdaw, Victor arrives in Indianapolis knowing that something isn't right - with the case file, with his work, and with the country itself.Īs he works to infiltrate the local cell of a abolitionist movement called the Underground Airlines, tracking Jackdaw through the back rooms of churches, empty parking garages, hotels, and medical offices, Victor believes he's hot on the trail. Louis Post-Dispatch, Kirkus Reviews, AudioFile Magazine, and AmazonĪ young black man calling himself Victor has struck a bargain with federal law enforcement, working as a bounty hunter for the US Marshall Service in exchange for his freedom. I hope that reading this book with inspire you to put a little less fuel on self-righteous fires, and a little more on supporting real change.The bestselling book that asks the question: what would present-day America look like if the Civil War never happened?Ī New York Times bestseller a Goodreads Choice finalist named one of the Best Books of the Year by NPR, Slate, Publishers Weekly, Hudson Bookseller, St. Workarounds that we all know about (hiring part-time only, punishing workers for not meeting ridiculous time quotas with fewer & fewer shifts, unofficial no-bathroom-break policies, etc), yet do very little about. But many of these have corporate workarounds. More importantly, we are left with an uncomfortable question: what level of human exploitation is acceptable? At what point do we become comfortable with human suffering? There are lines we have drawn in the sand regarding work day hours, week lengths, days off, and minimum wages.
What we are left with is a Victor free of his slave catching work now working within the underground airlines. We don’t know whether or not the information that Victor finds - the genetic modification of embryos into ‘nonpersons’ - is stopped. The plot itself doesn’t come to a tidy end. The underground airline within the book is primarily run by black men and women, with white men as the smokescreen (and the ones who take the credit) - an interesting and quite meta commentary as the book is written by a white man. The commentary on the white saviour complex is beautifully done. I dislike first person perspective, so it was good enough to make me stick with it. Underground Airlines is an uncomfortable story, well worth the read.
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