Sag Harbor
  • Published: 15 May 2011
  • ISBN: 9780099531883
  • Imprint: Vintage
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 288
  • RRP: $28.00

Sag Harbor

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'Pure shimmering brilliance...One of the funniest books I've ever read' - Gary Shteyngart

From the author of the Man Booker longlisted The Underground Railroad

From the author of the Man Booker longlisted The Underground Railroad

Benji spends most of the year as one of the only black kids at an elite prep school in Manhattan, going to roller disco bar mitzvahs, desperately trying to find his place in the social hierarchy.

Then he spends his summers in the African-American community of Sag Harbor on Long Island, and is just as confused. He's way behind on the latest handshakes, baffled by new slang, and his attempts to be cool and meet girls are constantly thwarted by his extremely awkward inner geek, braces and a badly cut Afro.

It's the summer of 1985 and Benji is determined that this is the summer when things will change and he'll fit in. For starters, he'll be reinvented as 'Ben'. When that doesn't catch on, it's another summer of the perpetual mortification that is teenage existence.
  • Published: 15 May 2011
  • ISBN: 9780099531883
  • Imprint: Vintage
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 288
  • RRP: $28.00
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About the author

Colson Whitehead

COLSON WHITEHEAD is the author of The Intuitionist, John Henry Days, Apex Hides the Hurt, Sag Harbor, Zone One and The Underground Railroad, as well as The Colossus of New York, a collection of essays. A recipient of a Whiting Writers' Award and a MacArthur Fellowship, he lives in New York City.

www.colsonwhitehead.com
@colsonwhitehead

portrait photo of Colson Whitehead

Also by Colson Whitehead

The Intuitionist
Zone One
See all

Praise for Sag Harbor

it is impossible not to like Sag Harbor and its genuinely empathetic, intelligent tone

Neel Mukherjee, The Times

Whitehead's delicious language and sarcastic, clever voice fit this teenager who's slowly constructing himself

New York Times

It's rare to come across a coming-of-age novel as polished as Colson Whitehead's Sag Harbor

New Statesman

A universal tale of adolescent angst

Adrian Turpin, Financial Times

Whitehead proves himself, among other things, a poet of the American summer and its aspirations...remarkable

Guardian

The ultimate coming of age tale

Nikesh Shukla

Perfectly portrays the constant and mortifying awkwardness of teenage existence

Aesthetica

Intimate and autobiographical story...the novel can't help but hold your attention

Ned Beauman, Dazed & Confused

Whitehead has tapped the most classic summer-novel activity of al: nostalgia

Time