Apex Hides the Hurt

Bestselling author Colson Whitehead has been a finalist for numerous prestigious honors, including the Pulitzer Prize and the PEN/Hemingway Award. His works are lauded for their great insight into America’s racial tension.

The small, Midwestern town of Winthrop is having an identity crisis. Local businessman Lucky Aberdine wants to rename the town New Prospera. City council member Uncle Albie Winthrop thinks the current name is just fine. And Mayor Regina Goode, a descendant of the slaves who founded the town, thinks the original name, Freedom, is best. Enter a curiously unnamed “professional naming consultant” whose greatest claim to fame thus far has been naming multicultural Apex bandages—guaranteed to match every skin color. But even the professional is losing faith in monikers.