Two-time Pulitzer Prize–winning author Colson Whitehead joins us to celebrate Cool Machine, the exuberant final volume of his Harlem Trilogy.
Spanning the early 1980s, the novel follows Harlem businessman and fence Ray Carney as he is pulled back into the city’s shifting criminal landscape. In 1981, a desperate bid to secure a loan for his wife draws Carney into one last heist. By 1983, his volatile partner Pepper navigates the downtown art and club scene as a bodyguard. And in 1986, Carney risks everything to save his late cousin’s son, confronting the past he thought he’d left behind.
Moving across a transforming New York—from Harlem to Wall Street to the East Village—Cool Machine brings to life a city of ambition, danger, and reinvention.
The evening will include a solo lecture and audience Q&A.
