NEW YORK — Oprah Winfrey has a new book club pick, Colson Whitehead’s “The Underground Railroad,” a historical novel that imagines the network of safe houses and passages that helped slaves escape to free territory is an actual train.
Winfrey told The Associated Press during a recent telephone interview that she knew from the first sentence that she would want to share her passion with her audience, an impulse she has relied on with uncommon success for 20 years.
“I was blown away by it,” Winfrey said. ” ‘Blown away’ is an often-used expression, but with this book it was to the point of sometimes putting it down and saying, ‘I can’t read anymore. I don’t want to turn the page. I want to know what happens, but I don’t want to know what happens.”‘
“The Underground Railroad” was scheduled to come out in September, but after learning of Winfrey’s decision, Doubleday moved up the release date to Tuesday and more than doubled the announced first printing, from 75,000 to 200,000. An interview with Whitehead appears in the September issue of Winfrey’s magazine, “O,” which comes out this week. Winfrey’s website, Oprah.com, will include a reading guide and Winfrey’s comments, and “Underground Railroad” will be featured on the social media site Goodreads.
