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 Whiteh