Finding the inside track

Hit list

Colson Whitehead has published six novels and two collections of essays. They vary not only in theme but also in style.

Back in the early 1990s, he wanted to structure a unique story for his debut. He abandoned the common trope of writing a semi-autobiographic story, "which begins with two people's dialogue about Kurt Cobain in a cafe". He went on with a series of catastrophic events for a Hollywood child star. The book was rejected.

He returned to semi-autobiographic theme for his fourth novel, Sag Harbor, published in 2009, which depicts teenagers hanging out in Sag Harbor, Long Island, during the summer of 1985.

Whitehead's published debut was The Intuitionist in 1999. He says he thought the novel might be a major hit, but it proved to be too ahead of its time with its focus on elevator inspector Lila Mae Watson, a woman who relies on her senses and feelings to traverse a vertical city.

Chinese poet Xi Chuan says it looks at city life and urban tales from a really rare and wonderful angle.

Zone One, published in 2011, is the post-apocalyptic tale of Mark Spitz, a volunteer "sweeper" in downtown Manhattan who, after a pandemic, helps clear downtown Manhattan of the infected.

The story was inspired by a dream he had amid the turmoil of divorce and his fascination with zombie stories and sci-fi.