On the face of it, this might seem similar to other books on American slavery and I’m sure will draw comparisons with The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead. But this is a different story. It takes the real life saga of William and Peter Still and their family as it’s basis but introduces a supernatural aspect.

The narrative focuses on Hiram, a slave on a Virginian plantation. He is the son of a slave owner and slave woman and seems destined for a life of servitude himself. However, he has a gift for remembering everything which gets the attention of his father and, through him, some associates. Without giving too much away, the associates are not all they seem and Hiram is lead down a different path.

The supernatural element I am finding a bit difficult to explain. It took me a while to understand it while I was reading the book and that may have been the intention of the author. But suffice to say, Hiram has another special gift which comes in very useful and is also beneficial to others.

I’m not sure the supernatural part of this story adds enough for it to be worthy of inclusion. It does, as I have said, differentiate it from other similar books but I think would have worked better without it. However, my overall opinion is that it’s a well written book with engaging characters and there’s a real warmth in some of the relationships. I would definitely recommend it.

TA-NEHISI COATES – THE WATER DANCER

I read this novel in advance of publication through NetGalley in return for an honest review.

“My part has been to tell the story of the slave. The story of the master never wanted for narrators.”

And so begins the incredible story of Hi, the young black slave – one of the Tasked – who narrates the story, whose father – one of the Quality – is the powerful white owner of a tobacco estate in Virginia, on which he works, and where much of the beginning of the story takes place.

Hi has a phenomenal memory and intelligence, and in time joins the Underground, a group containing black and white folk working together in their dangerous fight to help the Tasked become free and abolish slavery. Hi is aided by his mystical powers, through water, which transport him and others from one location to another. And in addition to this supernatural element, it is also a heart-breaking love story. Few authors could pull such oblique strands together with such skill.

Many critics have linked the author’s name with that of James Baldwin, the towering black gay American voice of literature. Certainly, the prose is dense and outstanding, and the reader is taken on a breathtakingly realised journey, based on stories handed down by actual slaves.

This is a very different novel that deserves to be read.

Incredible! This is a beautiful work of fiction with an almost poetic turn of phrase. The characters are well drawn and the story line is so heartbreaking but the author has created magic with the use of such uplifting language to create such a dark period in history. There is a mystic element to the story that draws on word of mouth stories handed down by families during the upheavals that slavery caused. One day your mother, father, brother or sister is sold and disappears to "somewhere in America". To know that your father is your owner and you are the chattel of your brother even though you are superior to both in intelligence and capability is the crux of story how do you live your life under that yoke.

I found this book quite a tough read, partly because of the subject matter and partly because of the mysticism.

The beautiful writing kept me going and the story and characters are, for the most part, enjoyable.

Read if you enjoy magical realism.

Ta-Nehisi Coates has an inimitable reputation as a journalist and writer of nonfiction about cultural, social and political issues. So his first novel comes with a tremendous amount of expectation and it's wonderful to see those expectations have been met. I've been eager to read “The Water Dancer” since it was first published in America a few months ago and received such rapturous acclaim. Many have likened the book to Toni Morrison's fiction which is very understandable. The story concerns a man named Hiram who is born into slavery in the pre-Civil War South and possesses a magical ability to transport people over long distances using a power known as “conduction” (a talent which the Underground Railroad movement is eager to utilize.) The way the novel considers issues to do with memory, grief and history regarding African Americans is so reminiscent of Morrison's writing it feels directly descended from the late great writer.

But it also reminded me of Charles Dickens' fiction in the tone and character of its story. Hiram is born into bondage, but his father is the plantation owner. He's tasked with serving and caring for his half brother Maynard who is entirely white so viewed as the natural successor. Hiram is far superior to Maynard in his intellectual and social abilities, but because he's mixed race can never inherit Lockless, the family's Virginian estate and tobacco plantation. So there's a dramatic tension in this injustice and it's riveting to follow how a gifted young downtrodden man might supersede his circumstances by utilizing his talents and exhibiting tremendous resilience. It feels like a very Dickensian trope to show how the progression of time results in miserly defeat for those who shore up their power and abuse the vulnerable. The way Coates traces Hiram's changing relationship to Lockless over time and the complexity of his birthright is so movingly portrayed.

What really emotionally drew me into the story though was Coates' meaningful depiction of a multitude of characters who must contend with excruciating effects caused by the manifold evils of slavery. I could feel a range of conflicted relationships to the past in each individual person Hiram meets along his journey. That Coates makes each of their experiences feel so distinct through subtle characterisation is really powerful. With lineage and familial relationships torn apart, each individual wrestles with different processes of reclaiming their heritage, trying to remember the past or consciously forgetting in order to suture the emotional wounds caused from such trauma. And at the heart of this story Hiram provides a fascinating counterpoint of someone who possesses a photographic memory but whose memories of his mother remain painfully obscured. The process he goes through as he grows into adulthood and finds a place he can claim as his home is described so intensely. It's brilliant storytelling that reinforces the immediate importance of stories themselves.

I was excited to read this, but found in no time that it was certainly dull. I hoped magical realism might kick in since main character has a special condition of almost teleporting .. I think my expectations were too high, but i flipped through the rest hoping the Harriet Tubman sections I'd read abou would be better. Ah well .. maybe the guy is simply not a novelist.

I could to get on with this story and abandoned it less than half way through, although I did skim the ending and bits in between. I did not find the characters engaging and the magic conduction thing did not add any depth to the novel. Tales of slavery are harrowing but this one was a bit tame and unrealistic.

The Water Dancer by Ta-Nihisi Coates
This is the powerful story of Hiram, born to Rose whose father is the plantation owner. It is set in 1860’s Virginia where the tobacco industry has begun to fail and the leaves are no longer the size of elephant’s ears. The description of the life of the slave is powerfully evoked and we know that Hiram has been sold by his father when he was only 9 years old. He understands his role in life s to serve and the description of how this band of the “Tasked” keep the plantation going is very powerful. The slaves are to carry out their functions imperceptibly:-
“My father, like all the masters, built an entire apparatus to disguise this weakness, to hide how prostrate they truly were. The tunnel, where I first entered the house, was the only entrance that the Tasked were allowed to use, and this was not only for the masters’ exaltation but to hide us, for the tunnel was but one of the many engineering marvels built into Lockless so as to make it appear powered by some imperceptible energy.”
Hiram knows that his role is to serve and longs to be free to make his own choices. He also knows that many of the slaves have been sold and he dreams of the freedom which is no longer available to the slaves. The way in which the white people are able to inflict terrible upon the slaves is powerfully described.
“They knew our names and they knew our parents. But they did not know us, because not knowing was essential to their power. To sell a child right from under his mother, you must know that mother only in the thinnest way possible. To strip a man down, condemn him to be beaten, flayed alive, then anointed with salt water, you cannot feel him the way you feel your own.”
This is an outstanding novel with wonderfully drawn characters and a very different element which lifts it above other novels on this subject. Many thanks to Net Galley and the publishers for my copy.

I'm in two minds about this book. On one hand, it is a brilliant portrayal of the lives of Tasking folk - which is what Coates calls those locked into slavery. On the other hand, there is a magical realism side that I found slightly disconcerting. I have no problem with magical realism usually, indeed it is something I have used myself in my writing, so why it bothers me here, I'm not sure. Maybe it is because the subject is so grim it demands realism. I'm not saying it doesn't work, but that the realistic side works better.

The portrayal s of Hiram, Sophia and Thena are brilliantly done. The descriptions of their lives and the lives of other tasking folk are heartrending - children torn from mothers, husbands and wives parted, families sold on to distant plantations. Coates lays it all out - the ignorance of the white Quality, the longing (and fear) of the Tasked to be free - yet there is never any great feeling of anger against the white slave owners. What comes across most is sadness, demoralisation and confusion.

I thought the first half of the book was exceptionally well done but the later parts where 'Conduction' (the magical transportation of slaves from one place to another) is gone into in greater detail, was more fragmented and less convincing.

This is still a great book, though, and well worth reading.

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.

A beautifully written novel with prose that sings to you. It's a complex story about Hiram, a tasked slave who finds some social elevation through the fact that his father is the plantation owner. The story is intriguing and I found myself getting emotionally involved with the lives of some of the characters and their experiences, particularly Thena who embodies the sorrow of the book.. It's an horrific representation of the age of slavery and at times the measure of human cruelty was almost unbearable. I love a bit of magic in a story and enjoyed the visions Hiram experienced but i did find the jump from the horrors of slavery to the ability to bi-locate was almost superfluous and hard to get to grips with. All in all a very good read.. .

I so wanted to enjoy this and, for much of it, I did. But I can't understand why there has to be an element of magical realism in this story - a straight forward story about a slave joining the underground would have been far more interesting - and readable. It's a shame, but I felt the device got in the way of the narrative.

This book will stay with me for a long time. I thought that this story was an eye opener. There is so much suffering in it but there is also hope. The writing style is unusual but I think it suits the subject matter. I was really moved by the characters lives and their desire for freedom.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy.

The way that the characters speak meant that it took me a while to get into the book. Once I got past that hurdle I was glad I persevered.

The reason I am giving this three stars is because I have recently read books on the same topic and I may be burned out on the subject matter. (I plan to re-evaluate my rating in 6 months)

Born in Virginia, Hiram Walker is the son of his master and the slave of his brother. After his brother dies Hiram is seemingly rescued but he is also aware of a power he holds, a power inherited from his African ancestors. Trying to escape to the North Hiram is recaptured but is recruited by the 'Railroad'. This is an organisation committed to ending slavery and which uses Hiram's skills as an agent. However Hiram knows his place is with his people and he returns to Virginia to his old home and his love to work the system from the inside.
Although essentially a tale of the Railroad and the system that assisted slaves to escape from the Deep South. Coates has woven in a strong sense of magical realism and whilst this is not really something I enjoy in books I can see how it works so well here. The book is powerfully written and although is has garnered a lot of praise, for once that is fully justified.

This really is a book of two halves. The first half I loved - if reading about slavery can be enjoyable. Hiram is an interesting character and his life as a slave in the failing plantations of the south was beautifully described. His relationship with his father and brother introduced a level of intrigue and helped propel the story forward.

Then something happened - it all went a bit misty, magical and frankly odd. Hiram has magical powers which enable him to move around the country. Now something similar happened in 'The Underground Railroad' by Colson Whitehead. Not content with the stories of the Underground Railroad which brought slaves out of the south, Whitehead introduced a mystical underground train. In the same vein this author has our hero affecting Dr Who like 'conductions', movements through space on a bank of mist.

I felt a little cheated, I had built up my outrage and sympathy for the characters, but if all they needed was a bit of water and mist, why were they hanging around as slaves? I expect I will be firmly in the minority as Oprah has endorsed this book, but I do wonder if she read it all the way through.

The central character of The Water Dancer is Hiram Walker, a slave in Virginia. However, the author hardly ever refers to slavery by that name preferring instead to talk about the Tasked and their Tasks. In fact, this is an unusual slavery narrative because not only does it, on the whole, avoid the use of the word, it also, mostly, shuns the violence and gore that form a large part of many other books about American slavery.

To begin with, this change of terminology and lack of violence confused me. I have read a few novels set in the same time/culture (most recently The Underground Railroad and Washington Black, of which more later) and it is the norm for there to be violence against the slaves, often graphically described. But here we have the Tasked and, at least at the start of the book, they lead a relatively pleasant life.

The word “relatively” is important here. Somehow the Tasked in this novel seem to have enough to eat and free time, as examples. But, and this is a big but, it is still true that they are not seen as “people” but rather as “possessions”. This lack of dignity, of basic human rights, of any chance of a future is what drives Hiram to seek a way out.

We read the story of his attempt to escape from slavery, his encounters with the famous Underground Railroad, and his response as he learns about both the real world and himself. For the most part, the focus is on the psychological and emotional impact of enslavement which the author explores carefully.

Hiram has a special talent: a photographic memory. This is what first brings him to the attention of his owners as someone deserving special treatment. At this point it feels a bit like Washington Black as a young boy receives an education that he wouldn’t normally expect and starts to mix with his owners (known here as the Quality) before an escape attempt takes him on an adventure.

However, this isn’t Hiram’s only special talent. He also shows the potential for the gift of Conduction - the ability to travel instantly from one place to another. It is this potential that brings him to the attention of the Underground Railroad: a person who can translocate people is, of course, invaluable to a group looking to rescue people by taking them a long way from their captivity. Here, there are similarities with The Underground Railroad as the author introduces a magical realist component to the railroad.

Will Hiram realise his potential? Will he be the benefit that the Underground Railroad hopes he will? What will be the personal cost for him if he is to uncover his gifting? What part will the hole in his memory where his mother used to be play in this development?

It’s a big story exploring big issues. At times it hints that slavery, in one form or another is with all us all of the time:

”Slavery was the root of all struggle. For it was said that the factories enslaved the hands of children, and that child-bearing enslaved the bodies of women, and that rum enslaved the souls of men. In that moment I understood, from that whirlwind of ideas, that this secret war was waged against something more than the Taskmasters of Virginia, that we sought not merely to improve the world, but to remake it.”

There are some beautiful sentences (and longer passages) in The Water Dancer and there is much to admire, but I didn’t find myself pulled into the story. I did find that most of the characters apart from Hiram seemed to be fairly similar, especially the women. So similar that at times I wasn’t sure who was who. It also relies heavily on characters pausing the story every so often to make long speeches explaining key points.

I haven’t read the non-fiction that Ta-Nehisi Coates is famous for. It is very clear that he can write, so both that non-fiction and future fiction is probably worth looking at. But overall this book was no more than OK for me.

A sincere thank you to the publisher, author and Netgalley for providing me an ebook copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review. I enjoyed this story very much and felt like I knew each character personally due to the description of them. I enjoyed the storyline. This is not my usual genre but in this instance I am extremely pleased and grateful for opening up my mind to something totally different. Thanks again.

I’ve loved Coates’ writing for some time, but this first work of fiction is something altogether better. He has a lucid style and an important voice, one we will all be hearing for many years to come. A vital book.

Speculative slavery adventure.

Set in the Antebellum era, Hiram Walker is the son of a plantation owner and a black slave who was sold auction when he was young. He has an amazing talent for memory, with one exception: he has scant recollection of his mother. He later discovers he has another gift, Conduction, the ability to transport from one place to another in a moment. Before Hiram can realise the full potential of his power, he must probe the deep wound that is the lost memory of his mother.

A metaphor for the historical amnesia of American black history if ever there was one.

Coates’s prose is breathtakingly poetic. His adoption of terms such as The Tasked for slaves, and his use of the speculative genre, refreshes the slavery narrative, we not only see the issue anew but see its relevance to contemporary racism.

While Hiram is a sympathetic and well-rounded character, the plentiful supporting cast is only traced. It doesn’t help, either, that the secondary characters tend to talk in monologues. In these moments, the forward momentum of Hiram’s quest tended to get bogged down.

Ambitious debut from an acclaimed essayist.

My thanks to NetGalley and publisher, Penguin Books UK, for the ARC.