Media mogul Oprah Winfrey announced Monday that she has chosen the novel The Water Dancer by slavery reparations activist Ta-Nehisi Coates as the first selection of her new book club partnership with Apple.
“I have not felt this way about a book since Beloved,” Winfrey said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press, referring to the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by her late friend Toni Morrison. Winfrey became tearful as she described The Water Dancer’s emotional impact and its depiction of slavery, Breitbart reports.
“I was really happy,” Coates said. “But I think the most encouraging part was that she’s a reader. It was clear from the conversation that she’s a reader. This is not a marketing ploy. There’s nothing to be cynical about.”
Perhaps there is. Oprah’s pick is another in a long list of professional honors and monetary rewards Coates has received in exchange for his work as an agent of racial discord, prompting David Horowitz to describe him as “America’s most pampered racist.”