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NPR's Book of the Day

NPR's Book of the Day

Colson Whitehead on 'Cool Machine,' the final in his Harlem Trilogy series

Jul 27, 2026 · 7m

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Ray Carney is a furniture salesman in Harlem with a long-running side hustle. Colson Whitehead’s Harlem Trilogy follows the character as he descends into crime across decades in a rapidly changing New York. Cool Machine is the third and final book in that series. In today’s episode, Whitehead speaks with Weekend Edition ’s Ayesha Rascoe about Carney as a divided soul. They also chat about gentrification in 1980s Harlem and how Whitehead brought his own version of New York into the world of the book. To listen to Book of the Day sponsor-free and support NPR's book coverage, sign up for Book of the Day+ at plus.npr.org/bookoftheday See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and…