The release date for the English version of 'The Intuitionist' by
Colson Whitehead is Jan 1999. If you enjoy this novel, it is available for buy as a paperback from Barnes & Noble or Indigo, as an ebook on the Amazon Kindle store, or as an audiobook on Audible.
Librarian's note: For an alternative cover version, click this link.
The Department of Elevator Inspectors in a busy city is home to two rival groups vying for supremacy: the Intuitionists, whose observational techniques entail meditation and instinct, and the Empiricists, who strictly follow the book and examine every structural and technical detail.
At the heart of the unrest is Lila Mae Watson, the first black female inspector in the city and a devoted Intuitionist with the greatest accuracy record in the department. Lila Mae was watching a new municipal building when an elevator collapsed, escalating the Empiticist-Intuitionist conflict and forcing Lila Mae to descend down to look into it. She becomes caught up in a web of mystery while trying to clear her identity, which reveals a truth that would alter her life irrevocably.
As the acclaimed debut of a significant American author, The Intuitionist generates a parallel world in which underlying ironies in issues of politics, morality, and race come to light. It is a dead-serious and genuinely amusing accomplishment of the imagination.