The Intuitionist — Colson Whitehead

Two warring factions in the Department of Elevator Inspectors in a bustling metropolis vie for dominance: The Empiricists, who go by the book and rigorously check every structural and mechanical detail, and the Intuitionists, whose observational methods involve meditation and instinct. Lila Mae Watson, the city's first black female inspector and a devout Intuitionist with the highest accuracy rate in the department, is at the center of the turmoil. An elevator in a new municipal building has crashed on Lila Mae's watch, fanning the flames of the Empiricist-Intuitionist feud and compelling Lila Mae to go underground to investigate. As she endeavors to clear her name, she becomes entangled in a web of intrigue that leads her to a secret that will change her life forever.

In this marvelously inventive, genre-bending novel, Colson Whitehead presents a parallel universe in which latent ironies in matters of morality, politics, and race emerge. A dead-serious and seriously funny feat of the imagination, The Intuitionist marks the debut of an important American writer.