Doubleday announced on Wednesday, Oct. 11 that New York native Colson Whitehead’s next novel, “The Nickel Boys,” is set in a brutal reform school in early 1960s Florida. The book is based on real events during the Jim Crow era, with students being beaten and sexually abused. The narrative centers on two students, one of whom believes in Martin Luther King Jr.’s message of nonviolent change and another who thinks the world is hopelessly rigged.
The book is scheduled for July 2019.