The Nickel Boys is a book by Colson Whitehead; based on a true story, it is written in the third person.  The multi-decade timeline of this narrative definitely attracts my attention, as it traverses the civil rights era (the 1960s) and the introductory decade of the new century (the story ends at the time the book was written in 2010). The main character, Elwood, seems to have two different personalities in the two featured time periods, but the truth is, his character is actually two separate people. In the 1960s, Elwood is himself, one of the high school students who study and work at the Nickel Academy, a reform school where all sorts of terrible abuses and crimes occur. For most of the contemporary portion of the book, fellow student Jack Turner takes jobs and enters relationships posing as Elwood, after the real Elwood is murdered by a school administrator. 

Nickel Academy is the setting of much of the story. It is a place where people are segregated by the color of their skin, and African Americans tend to receive much harsher punishments from the school staff; they assume most of the blame if something goes wrong. The school is also the site of mysterious murders, and the evidence later presented in the story confirms that school authorities hid the bodies of dead students.

Discrimination was certainly one of the most significant issues of the 1960s; it was during this era that Martin Luther King Jr. spoke dramatically on behalf of African Americans' rights. The original Elwood strongly agrees with King’s views and sees King as a hero; he wants the spirit of King’s civil rights crusades to continue everywhere in the world. After his observation of the horrible events that happened at the school, and upon hearing that he too will be murdered by a cruel abuser at the school, he runs away with Turner without hesitation. Unfortunately, he does not escape and Turner assumes the persona of Elwood after his death and maintains it throughout his life, until 2010, when he returns to Nickel Academy in honor of his deceased friend.