{"product_id":"crook-manifesto-9780349727646","title":"Crook Manifesto","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e''Glorious'' \u003ci\u003eNew York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e''The compelling energy of a crime thriller and the sharp wit of social satire'' \u003ci\u003eGuardian\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e''Whitehead''s crime series is one of the most enjoyable streaks in recent fiction'' \u003ci\u003eTelegraph\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e''This novel has it all'' \u003ci\u003eMail on Sunday\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eA \u003ci\u003eNEW YORK TIMES \u003c\/i\u003eBESTSELLER: a powerful and hugely-entertaining novel that summons 1970s New York in all its seedy glory.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e1971, New York City. Trash piles up on the streets, crime is at an all-time high, the city is going bankrupt, and a shooting war has broken out between the NYPD and the Black Liberation Army. Furniture store owner and ex-fence Ray Carney is trying to keep his head down, his business up and his life straight. But then he needs Jackson 5 tickets for his daughter May and he decides to hit up an old police contact, who wants favours in return. For Ray, staying out of the game gets a lot more complicated - and deadly.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe only living novelist to have won the Pulitzer prize for fiction twice\u003c\/b\u003e, for\u003ci\u003e The Underground Railroad\u003c\/i\u003e in 2016 and \u003ci\u003eThe Nickel Boys\u003c\/i\u003e in 2019...Resilience and reinvention are qualities that Whitehead has poured into Ray Carney, the furniture salesman and middleman for stolen goods at the heart of his hugely enjoyable 2021 heist novel \u003ci\u003eHarlem Shuffle \u003c\/i\u003eand now its follow-up, \u003ci\u003eCrook Manifesto\u003c\/i\u003e. Part of a proposed trilogy set in Harlem in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, the stories combine the family man turned crook dynamic of \u003ci\u003eBreaking Bad \u003c\/i\u003ewith the hardboiled humour of crime novelists such as Chester Himes and Elmore Leonard. \u003cb\u003eThe blend of social realism, melodrama and farce prompted another comparison in my mind: Whitehead is fast becoming the Dickens of black American life\u003c\/b\u003e * The Sunday Times *\u003cbr\u003eWhitehead's \u003ci\u003eCrook Manifesto\u003c\/i\u003e is \u003cb\u003ea dazzling treatise, a glorious and intricate anatomy of the heist, the con and the slow game\u003c\/b\u003e. There's an element of crime here, certainly, but as in Whitehead's previous books, genre isn't the point . . . \u003cb\u003egleefully detonates its satire upon this world while getting to the heart of the place and its people\u003c\/b\u003e * New York Times *\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eCrook Manifesto \u003c\/i\u003e. . . is a delight . . . \u003cb\u003eFew writers combine depth of insight and compassion with exquisite prose; Whitehead is one of them. I'd rather read his novels than those of just about any other writer alive.\u003c\/b\u003e * Financial Times *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTwo-time Pulitzer-winning author Whitehead shows no sign of resting on his laurels\u003c\/b\u003e. \u003ci\u003eCrook Manifesto\u003c\/i\u003e continues the brilliantly realised sequence that began with \u003ci\u003eHarlem Shuffle\u003c\/i\u003e, intricately depicting cultural history and family drama with the compelling energy of a crime thriller and the sharp wit of social satire...In ambition and scope, in the way the intimate is so deftly weaved with the epic, one is also reminded of Balzac. \u003cb\u003eWhitehead has embarked on a great \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003ecomédie humaine\u003c\/i\u003e of his own.\u003c\/b\u003e -- Jake Arnott * Guardian *\u003cbr\u003eFull of the same sharp edges and biting humour that infused \u003ci\u003eHarlem Shuffle\u003c\/i\u003e . . . \u003cb\u003eanother hugely enticing read\u003c\/b\u003e * Independent, Best Books for July *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFast, fun, ribald and pulpy, with a touch of Quentin Tarantino\u003c\/b\u003e in its deadpan dialogue and don't-take-this-too-seriously tone * Sunday Times *\u003cbr\u003eCarney remains an appealing, amoral hero: a not-quite-innocent. \u003cb\u003eWhitehead's New York, too, is masterfully characterful. It has intelligence, wiles, predatory cunning....And it hands down great, blunt judgements\u003c\/b\u003e...For my money, Whitehead's crime series is one of the most enjoyable streaks in recent fiction...\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eCrook Manifesto \u003c\/i\u003egave me something I had missed in recent reading: joy\u003c\/b\u003e * Telegraph *\u003cbr\u003eWhether in high literary form or entertaining, page-turner mode, \u003cb\u003ethe man is simply incapable of writing a bad book\u003c\/b\u003e * Guardian *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAlmost gleefully unhurried - meaning that blindsiding moments of pivotal drama arrive like a blow to the solar plexus\u003c\/b\u003e. Roll on the third book in the series * Daily Mail *\u003cbr\u003eIn Whitehead's second crime novel, \u003cb\u003eHarlem's Ray Carney is once again a striving African American businessman and father\u003c\/b\u003e trying to get ahead while sticking to the straight and narrow, a path that continually eludes him * Oprah Daily *\u003cbr\u003eWhitehead has a talent for creating ambiguous, complex scenes that fix in your memory * Evening Standard *\u003cbr\u003eMore \u003cb\u003epage-turning, perfect prose\u003c\/b\u003e from the double Pulitzer prize-winner * Grazia's Summer Reads *\u003cbr\u003eColson Whitehead is one of the \u003cb\u003emost talented storytellers in contemporary fiction\u003c\/b\u003e, and watching him switch his approach and flex new muscles is a wildly entertaining reading experience * Los Angeles Review of Books *\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eCrook Manifesto \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003eexamines how families work\u003c\/b\u003e in the face of indifference, chaos and hostility * Irish Examiner *\u003cbr\u003eAs usual, when he moves into a new genre, he keeps the bones but does his own decorating * Washington Post *\u003cbr\u003eFierce and glorious ... \u003cb\u003eSentence by brilliant, funny sentence, a masterpiece\u003c\/b\u003e * People *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWhitehead excels at stitching gallows humour into some very heavy topics, and this novel is riven with them.\u003c\/b\u003e It is violent, too, but he dispatches this with a Quentin Tarantino-esque swagger, which makes it all\u003cb\u003e indecently entertaining . . . \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003ea stylist whose sentences sing\u003c\/b\u003e -- Nick Duerden * I Newspaper *\u003cbr\u003eAs well as being\u003cb\u003e funny, effortlessly streetwise and criminally pleasurable\u003c\/b\u003e to read it's also politically enlightening and quietly incendiary -- Jane Graham * Big Issue *\u003cbr\u003eWhitehead captures the menace and the beauty of the city in exhilarating detail within the many-faceted, rollicking plot that propels his second, \u003cb\u003emagnificently vibrant and transcendent\u003c\/b\u003e Ray Carney novel. \u003cb\u003eReaders will hunt for any new book by Whitehead, but the newest in his Harlem saga will be sought with particular zeal\u003c\/b\u003e * Booklist *\u003cbr\u003eWhitehead's gift for sudden, often grotesque eruptions of violence is omnipresent, so much so that you almost feel squeamish to recognize this book for the \u003cb\u003eaccomplished, streamlined, and darkly funny comedy of manners\u003c\/b\u003e it is . . . \u003cb\u003eIt's not just crime fiction at its craftiest, but shrewdly rendered social history\u003c\/b\u003e * Kirkus, STARRED REVIEW *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLiterary titan Whitehead's \u003ci\u003eHarlem Shuffle\u003c\/i\u003e is one of the best New York novels in recent memory, one of those books one doesn't want to end, so it's a real treat to have a sequel\u003c\/b\u003e * Publishers Weekly, Best Summer Reads *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eThere's spikey humour and perceptive honesty from the get-go\u003c\/b\u003e * Oldie *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSly plotting, vibrant characterisation, astute social history - this novel has it all\u003c\/b\u003e -- Hephzibah Anderson * Mail on Sunday *\u003cbr\u003eWhitehead has always been a diverse novelist, moving between historical fiction, science fiction, social realism and post-modernism. Yet, \u003cb\u003ewith these novels, it seems as if he has found a groove he can inhabit and expand at the same time\u003c\/b\u003e -- Stuart Kelly * Scottish Mail on Sunday *\u003cbr\u003eBlending family drama with history and culture,\u003cb\u003e the sequel has the feel of a Quentin Tarantino movie\u003c\/b\u003e, and we were hooked -- Daisy Lester * Independent *\u003cbr\u003eHighly charged . . . \u003cb\u003ecolourful and captivating\u003c\/b\u003e * Woman's Way, Ireland *\u003cbr\u003eWhitehead is \u003cb\u003eas elegant a writer as there is\u003c\/b\u003e * Bristol Magazine *\u003cbr\u003eWhitehead's writing is \u003cb\u003ecolourful and captivating\u003c\/b\u003e - the characters jump off the page * The i *\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Little, Brown Book Group","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48733692854615,"sku":"9780349727646","price":18.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/crook-manifesto-9780349727646","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}