Our tally of the Best of the Best Books of 2016 already points to a strong consensus in both fiction and nonfiction and as it so happens, I, too, count Colson Whitehead‘s much-lauded The Underground Railroad among my favorites of this year. It is not only the novel we needed to better grapple with our profound, continuing understanding — or lack thereof — of how deeply embedded slavery is in the American fabric, but it is among the novels we will turn to for meaning in the years to come, as the country’s future grows ever more uncertain. The leading […]