Oprah Winfrey has chosen Colson Whitehead's The Underground Railroad as the latest Oprah's Book Club Pick. She told the Associated Press "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.'"
Although scheduled for a September release, Doubleday moved up the pub date to yesterday for The Underground Railroad "and more than doubled the announced first printing, from 75,000 to 200,000," the AP wrote. The September issue of O, the Oprah Magazine features an interview with Whitehead, and Oprah.com will include a reading guide and Winfrey's comments.
Whitehead said "he swore out loud--while on a plane--when he learned his book had joined Winfrey's pantheon of favorites," the AP noted.
Independent booksellers nationwide were excited by the news and reacted on social media. For example, after the morning announcement, BookCourt in Brooklyn, N.Y., tweeted: "Congratulations to Colson Whitehead! The Underground Railroad is the next Oprah Book Club pick!… https://www.instagram.com/p/BInF2zIgsem/." And in the afternoon: "We've got signed copies of @colsonwhitehead 's @Oprah Book Club pick, The Underground Railroad."
From the Facebook page of Watermark Books & Café, Wichita, Kan.: "No one can wait for Colson Whitehead's newest book, and you shouldn't have to either. They moved up the release date for #TheUndergroundRailroad to TODAY. We've got some signed copies, and Susan swears this will be one of the biggest books of the year. Here's the The New York Times review. You *need* this book."
And a Facebook post by Square Books, Oxford, Miss.: "Colson Whitehead is sweeping the nation with THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD. We have a very limited number of signed first editions for fans of the author or Oprah's Book Club."