Elwood Curtis, a sixteen-year-old African-American teenager, is a good student, works part-time in a store after school, and is preparing to enter college: he dreams of becoming a teacher. But due to an absurd accident, he is accused of a crime that he did not commit and is sentenced to time in a correctional facility. Nickel Academy turns out to be a real hell, where students are subjected to physical and emotional abuse and exploitation. Those who resist are taken “to the margins”, from where they never return. Elwood's friendship with Turner, who is his complete opposite, helps him survive in this hell. Elwood is naive and believes in the possibility of the triumph of justice, and Turner is convinced that the world was, is and will be cruel and unfair, and will always be so. A desperate attempt by friends to change the order prevailing in Nikel ends in tragedy. The novel is based on real events and "confirms Colson Whitehead's leading place in modern American literature" (Time magazine). In 2020 he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize and the Orwell Prize.