Cora, an enslaved woman on a Georgia cotton plantation, flees her captors alongside a fellow laborer named Caesar. In this reimagining of history, the titular transport network is not a metaphor but a literal system of steam locomotives and iron tracks concealed beneath the earth. As the pair travels northward through various states, they encounter different manifestations of white supremacy, ranging from forced medical sterilization programs to public lynchings. They are pursued by Ridgeway, a relentless slave catcher determined to return Cora to the plantation.
Readers interested in the structural violence and legal frameworks of the antebellum South choose this book to witness a surrealist interpretation of historical trauma. It attracts those who prefer visceral, unsentimental accounts of survival and the mechanics of systemic oppression. One walks away with a grim understanding of how racial hierarchy recalibrates its methods across different geographies. The narrative provides a blunt examination of the cost of liberty and the physical toll of fleeing a state-sanctioned infrastructure of human property.
Deep, contemplative and thought-provoking; a moderate read.
Best for readers like The Deep Diver. Which reader are you?
- Published
- 2016
- Language
- EN
