--- title: Oprah's Book Club: Colson Whitehead's 'Underground Railroad' description: The publisher moved its release date up more than a month to coincide with the announcement canonical: https://time.com/4435098/oprah-colson-whitehead-underground-railroad/ author: Sarah Begley article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-08-02T15:09:49.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T23:43:21.287Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Oprah Picks Colson Whitehead's 'Underground Railroad' og:description: The publisher moved its release date up to coincide with the announcement og:url: https://time.com/4435098/oprah-colson-whitehead-underground-railroad/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4fc62550bc61734c/6988a0c7e20a873551a91e3d/oprah.jpeg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Premiere Of OWN's "Greenleaf" - Arrivals og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Oprah Picks Colson Whitehead's 'Underground Railroad' twitter:description: The publisher moved its release date up to coincide with the announcement twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4fc62550bc61734c/6988a0c7e20a873551a91e3d/oprah.jpeg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Oprah Picks Colson Whitehead's _Underground Railroad_ for Book Club by [Sarah Begley](https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley Aug 2, 2016 3:09 PM UTC  Producer / TV Personality Oprah Winfrey attends the premiere of OWN's "Greenleaf" at The Lot on June 15, 2016 in West Hollywood, California. Producer / TV Personality Oprah Winfrey attends the premiere of OWN's "Greenleaf" at The Lot on June 15, 2016 in West Hollywood, California.Paul Archuleta—FilmMagic/Getty Images by [Sarah Begley](https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley Aug 2, 2016 3:09 PM UTC Colson Whitehead’s new novel [_The Underground Railroad_](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0385542364/?tag=timecom-20) was supposed to be one of the biggest books of fall. But in a surprise announcement on Tuesday, his publisher moved the release date up more than a month, to Tuesday itself, thanks to a major coup: [Oprah Winfrey](http://time.com/4373539/oprah-winfrey-responds-donald-trump-running-mate-offer/) has chosen the novel for her book club, instantly ensuring it will be one of the biggest books of the year. Originally slated for a Sept. 13 publication date, the publisher, Doubleday, secretly started shipping out 200,000 copies in anticipation of the announcement. When Whitehead got the call about the Oprah news, he said in a press release, “I let out a stream of loud, joyful expletives—which was awkward because my plane had just landed and everyone looked at me like I was crazy … Oprah has introduced so many wonderful books to people, from _The Song of Solomon_ to _The Sound and The Fury_, that I’m honored and grateful that _The Underground Railroad_ is joining such great company. You write the best book you can, and hope it finds its way. This is the best kind of sendoff.” Whitehead is a MacArthur genius and the author of _The Intuitionist, Sag Harbor_ and other books. The premise of his new novel imagines America’s most shameful history chapter with an element of fantasy: What if the Underground Railroad were an actual railroad? Writing on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/Oprah/status/760463548657131520), Oprah warned one reader, “sometimes you’ll have to put the book down. No kidding. It gets rough!” Watch Oprah’s endorsement below and take her advice to “get it, then get another copy for somebody you know, because you are definitely gonna want to talk about this with somebody once you read that last heart-stopping page.” > [](https://twitter.com/Oprah/status/760455842810372097) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4435098/oprah-colson-whitehead-underground-railroad/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4435098/oprah-colson-whitehead-underground-railroad/"},"headline":"Oprah Picks Colson Whitehead's Underground Railroad for Book Club","datePublished":"2016-08-02T15:09:49.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T23:43:21.287Z","description":"The publisher moved its release date up more than a month to coincide with the announcement","url":"https://time.com/4435098/oprah-colson-whitehead-underground-railroad/","keywords":["Books"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4fc62550bc61734c/6988a0c7e20a873551a91e3d/oprah.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sarah Begley","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4fc62550bc61734c/6988a0c7e20a873551a91e3d/oprah.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Premiere Of OWN's \"Greenleaf\" - Arrivals","caption":"Premiere Of OWN's \"Greenleaf\" - Arrivals","creditText":"Paul Archuleta—FilmMagic/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/books/","name":"Books"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4435098/oprah-colson-whitehead-underground-railroad/","name":"Oprah Picks Colson Whitehead's Underground Railroad for Book Club"}}]}] ```