The Water Dancer

This book paints a vivid picture of the symbiotic relationship between 19th-century Southern slave masters and the people they enslaved. It also underscores the fact that for oppressed Black people, allies and enemies came in all colors.

The protagonist, Hiram Walker, is a child prodigy whose intellect and ambition make him poorly suited for a life of servitude. Significantly, Coates speaks to the obligation to “reach back” which those who have achieved a measure of physical, spiritual, or intellectual freedom owe to those who are still enslaved.

Harriet Tubman plays an important role in his narrative because she embodies that… show more.

I had appreciated the author as a writer of insightful essays and opinion pieces, so I was intensely curious about his first work of fiction. He blew me away with his imaginative telling of the liberation of enslaved people during the Civil War. Fact and fiction dance back and forth in this book, which reveals the horrors of slavery while celebrating the joy of the unstoppable human quest for freedom.

I bought this book thinking it would be a whimsical read and a fun departure from my non-fiction, academic world. Fast forward a few years, and I have consistently used this book in my teaching of university students in my Digital Cultures classes.

The book might not seem like it’s about the Internet, but the spiritual, inter-generational elements of the story are easily connected to the hopeful stories we see time and again of Black folks online.

Coate's writing enlivens this haunting, almost mythical story about how we can justify human cruelty and the various facets of liberation.

The story's protagonist is a slave whose father is a plantation owner. As a young boy, he suffers the loss of his mother, a renowned Water Dancer, and is eventually raised in a hybrid world where he is elevated but never set free.

The book forces the reader to wrestle with morality, humanity, and the murky ethics of committing evil to further an overall good. Mostly, it's just a compelling read that had me burning the midnight oil to… show more.

This beautiful story tells the tale of Hiram Walker. Hiram is the fictional biracial slave who escapes his life of slavery on a Virginia plantation and learns to nurture his spiritual gifts to be a Moses to other Freedmen escaping the horrors of slavery.

He is the son of an enslaved woman and the white plantation owner. Such parentage was common during the era of slavery and the slave trade in the U.S. Many plantation owners enslaved, owned, tortured, beat, sold, and traded away their own children.

Through Hiram we see the mystical gifts of the African oral tradition to… show more.

This novel is set in the Southern U.S. prior to the Civil War, a time and place I seem drawn to in my reading. Slave Hiram Walker is the illegitimate son of the plantation owner. His mother was sold away when he was young, and though Hiram has a photographic memory, he can’t remember her, a fact that troubles him. Unforeseen circumstances reveal he also has the gift of conduction—an ability to transport himself across great distances, a skill that comes in handy as he escapes and becomes involved in the Underground Railway. The fantasy element aside, this is primarily… show more.

Set in the Antebellum South, The Water Dancer is a richly imagined novel founded on meticulous historical research bonded to luscious fantasy. Hiram Walker, a black slave who endures all the worst slavery can impart—loss of family, loss of his own identity, cruelty, and hopelessness—receives an unusual power that allows him to defy death. I am a connoisseur of history and a believer in hope. The Water Dancer gives the reader both, beautifully presented through eloquence of word and brilliance of mind. It flies me away!