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August 9, 2022 @ 8:00 pm
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Harlem Shuffle: A Virtual Evening with Colson Whitehead and Adam Serwer
Books & Books, Miami Book Fair and Independent Bookstores across the U.S. present…
A Virtual Evening with Colson Whitehead
in conversation with Adam Serwer
discussing
Harlem Shuffle: A Novel
(Anchor, $17)
Tuesday, August 9, 8 PM ET | Via Zoom
GET TICKETS HERE
About the Book:
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Underground Railroad and The Nickel Boys, this gloriously entertaining novel is “fast-paced, keen-eyed and very funny … about race, power and the history of Harlem all disguised as a thrill-ride crime novel” (San Francisco Chronicle).
“Ray Carney was only slightly bent when it came to being crooked…” To his customers and neighbors on 125th street, Carney is an upstanding salesman of reasonably priced furniture, making a decent life for himself and his family. He and his wife Elizabeth are expecting their second child, and if her parents on Striver’s Row don’t approve of him or their cramped apartment across from the subway tracks, it’s still home.
Few people know he descends from a line of uptown hoods and crooks, and that his façade of normalcy has more than a few cracks in it. Cracks that are getting bigger all the time.
Cash is tight, especially with all those installment-plan sofas, so if his cousin Freddie occasionally drops off the odd ring or necklace, Ray doesn’t ask where it comes from. He knows a discreet jeweler downtown who doesn’t ask questions, either.
Then Freddie falls in with a crew who plan to rob the Hotel Theresa—the “Waldorf of Harlem”—and volunteers Ray’s services as the fence. The heist doesn’t go as planned; they rarely do. Now Ray has a new clientele, one made up of shady cops, vicious local gangsters, two-bit pornographers, and other assorted Harlem lowlifes.
Thus begins the internal tussle between Ray the striver and Ray the crook. As Ray navigates this double life, he begins to see who actually pulls the strings in Harlem. Can Ray avoid getting killed, save his cousin, and grab his share of the big score, all while maintaining his reputation as the go-to source for all your quality home furniture needs?
Harlem Shuffle’s ingenious story plays out in a beautifully recreated New York City of the early 1960s. It’s a family saga masquerading as a crime novel, a hilarious morality play, a social novel about race and power, and ultimately a love letter to Harlem.
But mostly, it’s a joy to read, another dazzling novel from the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award-winning Colson Whitehead.
About the Author:
COLSON WHITEHEAD is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of ten works of fiction and nonfiction, and is a two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for The Nickel Boys and The Underground Railroad, which also won the National Book Award. A recipient of MacArthur and Guggenheim Fellowships, he lives in New York City.
About the Moderator:
ADAM SERWER is a staff writer for the Ideas section of The Atlantic and the author of the New York Times bestselling essay collection The Cruelty Is The Point. He was previously the national editor at BuzzFeed News, a national reporter for MSNBC, and a reporter for Mother Jones. He is the recipient of the 2019 Hillman Prize for commentary and analysis, the 2015 Sigma Delta Chi Award for online column writing, The 2020 Vernon Jarrett Medal, and the 2019 National Association of Black Journalists Salute to Excellence Award for magazine commentary.
Ticket Guidelines:
- U.S. GENERAL ADMISSION (Includes book + U.S shipping): The purchase of this ticket admits (1) one person into the virtual event and includes (1) one copy of the book Harlem Shuffle: A Novel (Anchor, $17 + tax and fee). A fee of $6 is included for U.S. domestic shipping of the book.
When completing your order, please make sure that you include your complete shipping address (including your Apt. # if applicable) and phone number.
All books will be shipped AFTER the event.
When completing your order, please make sure that you include your complete shipping address and phone number.
Please note: Due to the pandemic the post office is being challenged by increased volume, staffing issues, and safety measures. Most orders within the U.S. deliver in about 10 business days from the date the book ships. International orders usually take longer and vary depending on the country of destination. We cannot guarantee the exact date of delivery, however, will do our best to make it as swift as possible. Thank you for your understanding.
Books & Books is excited to partner with Miami Book Fair and indies across the country for this special conversation with Colson Whitehead! Tickets are bundled with the book (+tax/fee). The purchase of this ticket admits (1) one person into the virtual event and includes (1) one copy of the book Harlem Shuffle: A Novel (Anchor, $17 + tax and fee. A fee of $6 is included for U.S. domestic shipping of the book.
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