Apex Hides the Hurt by Colson Whitehead - Award-Winning Contemporary Fiction - Paperback

Condition: BRAND NEW
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 9780708898758
Publisher: Fleet

Overview

Apex Hides the Hurt is a razor-sharp satirical novel from Pulitzer Prize-winning author Colson Whitehead. A nomenclature consultant — a man paid to invent names for products — is hired to settle a small town's identity crisis when its citizens cannot agree on what to call it. Witty, inventive, and quietly devastating, this brisk paperback explores branding, memory, and American history through one unforgettable assignment. A must-read for fans of sharp, socially observant literary fiction.

About the Book

The town of Winthrop has decided it needs a new name. The resident software millionaire wants to call it New Prospera; the mayor wants to return to the original choice of the founding Black settlers; and the town's aristocracy sees no reason to change the name at all. What the town needs, they realise, is a nomenclature consultant — and it turns out the consultant needs them too. Nameless and world-weary, the narrator has made a career of inventing brand names, most famously "Apex", a bandage designed to match every skin tone. Summoned to Winthrop to arbitrate the dispute, he finds himself drawn into the town's tangled history, uncovering buried truths about race, commerce, and identity along the way. In a culture overwhelmed by marketing, Whitehead suggests, the name really is everything — and the consultant's efforts may result not just in a new name for the town, but a new and subtler truth about it as well. Told with dry wit and precise, elegant prose, this compact novel packs the intellectual heft of Whitehead's later, larger works into a lean 212 pages. It's a clever meditation on how the words we choose shape the world we live in, delivered with the same rigorous imagination that would go on to win Whitehead two Pulitzer Prizes.

• Written by two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Colson Whitehead
• Sharp, satirical take on branding, race, and American history
• Compact, fast-paced read at just over 200 pages
• Brand new UK paperback edition
• Perfect for book clubs and fans of literary fiction
• An accessible entry point into Whitehead's acclaimed body of work

About the Author

Colson Whitehead is an American novelist and the author of numerous acclaimed works, including his 1999 debut The Intuitionist. He won the National Book Award for Fiction and the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for The Underground Railroad (2016), and won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction again for The Nickel Boys, making him one of only four writers ever to win the prize twice. He has also published two books of nonfiction and received a MacArthur Fellowship in 2002. He lives in New York City.

Why You'll Love This Novel

Whitehead's trademark blend of wit, precision, and social insight makes Apex Hides the Hurt a compact but powerful read. Perfect for readers who enjoy clever, character-driven satire with real substance behind the humour.

Please Note: Book cover, edition, and ISBN may vary slightly from the image shown, as this is the UK edition currently in stock.