Reading Colson Whitehead, you never know what you're going to get. He’ll write a non-fiction book about poker one minute and a multi-award-winning epic about slavery and race in America the next. This week, the two-time Pulitzer prize winning author joins us for a discussion about his latest novel Crook Manifesto and why he loves a doomed heist.

Reading list:

The Intuitionist, Colson Whitehead, 1999

John Henry Days, Colson Whitehead, 2001

Apex Hides the Hurt, Colson Whitehead, 2006

Sag Harbor, Colson Whitehead, 2009

Zone One, Colson Whitehead, 2011

The Underground Railroad, Colson Whitehead, 2016

The Nickel Boys, Colson Whitehead, 2019

Harlem Shuffle, Colson Whitehead, 2021

Crook Manifesto, Colson Whitehead, 2023

Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty, Patrick Radden Keefe, 2021

The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder, David Grann, 2023

Firelight, John Morrissey, 2015

Biography of X, Catherine Lacey, 2023

You can find these books at your favourite independent book store. Or if you want to listen to them as audiobooks, you can head to the Read This reading room on Apple Books.

Socials: Stay in touch with Read This on Instagram and Twitter

Guest: Colson Whitehead

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