The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates

The Water Dancer My Rating: 4.3

Young Hiram "Hi" Walker was born into bondage. When his mother was sold away, Hiram was robbed of all memory of her - but was gifted with a mysterious power. Years later, when Hiram almost drowns in a river, that same power saves his life. This brush with death births an urgency in Hiram and a daring scheme: to escape from the only home he’s ever known. So begins an unexpected journey that takes Hiram from the corrupt grandeur of Virginia’s proud plantations to desperate guerrilla cells in the wilderness, from the coffin of the Deep South to dangerously idealistic movements in the North. Even as he’s enlisted in the underground war between slavers and the enslaved, Hiram’s resolve to rescue the family he left behind endures. This is the dramatic story of an atrocity inflicted on generations of women, men, and children - the violent and capricious separation of families - and the war they waged to simply make lives with the people they loved.

I really enjoyed The Water Dancer and found the story of escape from slavery powerful and moving. Ta-Nehisi Coates did a fantastic job portraying the emotional toll and daily humiliation enslaved people endured, even without focusing on physical brutality.

However, I wasn’t expecting the magical elements, and while I see their symbolic value, I felt they took away from an otherwise strong and realistic narrative. Still, the writing is beautiful, and I’d recommend the book to anyone interested in historical fiction with depth and heart.