Colson Whitehead in Conversation with Randy Boyagoda

November 17 at 7:00pm

The festivity continues through to November, with Colson Whitehead in conversation on November 17. The two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Underground Railroad and The Nickel Boys will grace TIFA’s virtual stage to introduce his newest book, Harlem Shuffle. This gloriously entertaining novel of heists, shakedowns and rip-offs, set in Harlem in the 1960s, is an hilarious family saga masquerading as a crime novel and social novel about race and power.

Registration includes a copy of Harlem Shuffle when purchased at FestivalofAuthors.ca, at a cost of $38 (including shipping and HST). Registration will also be included with in-store purchases of the book, upon its release date, at the UofT Bookstore, priced at $36+ HST. Registration will close on November 16.

Please note: If you register after November 7, your copy of Harlem Shuffle will be delivered after the event.

Registration is now closed.

To his customers and neighbours on 125th street, Ray Carney is an upstanding salesman of reasonably priced furniture, making a 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. But cash is tight, especially with all those installment-plan sofas, so if his cousin Freddie occasionally drops off the odd ring or necklace at the furniture store, Ray doesn’t see the need to ask where it comes from. He knows a discreet jeweller downtown who also doesn’t ask questions. Then Freddie falls in with a crew who plans to rob the Hotel Theresa and volunteers Ray’s services as the fence. The heist doesn’t go as planned; they rarely do, after all.

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?

Colson Whitehead is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Underground Railroad, which in 2016 won the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction and the National Book Award and was named one of the Ten Best Books of the Year by The New York Times Book Review, as well as The Noble Hustle, Zone One, Sag Harbor, The Intuitionist, John Henry Days, Apex Hides the Hurt, and The Colossus of New York. He is also a Pulitzer Prize finalist and a recipient of the MacArthur and Guggenheim Fellowships. He lives in New York City. Photo credit: Madeline Whitehead.

Randy Boyagoda is the author of six books, including the novels Governor of the Northern Province, Beggar’s Feast, and Original Prin. His work has been nominated for the Scotiabank Giller Prize, IMPAC Dublin Literary Prize, and named a Globe and Mail Best Book of the year and New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice. An essayist, book critic and radio columnist, he is a professor of English at the University of Toronto, where he lives with his wife and their four daughters. Photo credit: Derek Shapton.