Fleet to publish Whitehead's Harlem Shuffle in September

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Colson Whitehead is publishing a new novel with Little, Brown imprint Fleet, Harlem Shuffle, set in Harlem in the 1960s.

Due for release on 14th September 2021, Harlem Shuffle has been described as "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".

The book is about a furniture salesman wrapped up in a criminal double life. Its synopsis begins "Ray Carney was only slightly bent when it came to being crooked..." and describes how the character becomes embroiled in an "internal tussle between Ray the striver and Ray the crook". 

Its author said in an interview for TIME he'd looked to favourite caper films for inspiration, from 1951’s "Rififi" to "Ocean’s Eleven", remarking further that the book's complicated jigsaw cover "prepares you for what’s inside".

UK and Commonwealth rights, excluding Canada, were secured via Caspian Dennis at Abner Stein, and it will be published as a £16.99 hardback on its release in September.

Ursula Doyle, publisher of Fleet, said: "After his two Pulitzer-winning novels, The Underground Railroad and The Nickel Boys, it’s brilliant to see Colson back with something new – although, of course, some themes are perennial. Harlem Shuffle is a vivid re-creation of 1960s Harlem, with our hero, Ray, caught between two worlds which increasingly collide. Colson’s writing is as energetic and inventive as ever; this novel is a joy to read."