Cool Machine

Beskrivelse

A thrilling journey through 1980s New York City, Cool Machine captures the city’s restless energy through the eyes of Ray Carney and his partner Pepper. This novel explores crime, ambition, and survival amid a city in flux.

A gripping tale of crime and change set against the backdrop of a transforming New York City.

From the acclaimed #1 New York Times bestselling author and two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Colson Whitehead comes a vibrant and captivating story that brings 1980s New York to life. In 1981, the city is shaking off financial ruin, fueled by aggressive real estate booms and a Wall Street unleashed by the Reagan era’s cutthroat capitalism. Up in Harlem, Ray Carney, a thriving business owner and expert fence, has just earned the title of Sterling Furniture's Dealer of the Month.

However, when his wife Elizabeth is denied a loan for her travel agency, Carney takes a gamble on one final heist, drawing him into the web of a notorious criminal mastermind. By 1983, Pepper, Carney’s friend and partner, is viewed by some as a ruthless sociopath and by others as a skilled thief with rough edges. Feeling the weight of age in his body, Pepper takes a bodyguard job that plunges him into the unfamiliar East Village art and club scene. Yet, whether uptown or downtown, violence is a universal language-and Pepper speaks it fluently.

Fast forward to 1986, Carney continues to be haunted by the death of his cousin Freddie. Two decades later, he gets a chance to save Freddie’s son from the city’s brutal underworld. Coming out of retirement and teaming up with Pepper again means putting everything he’s built for his family on the line, with only one shot to make it count.

With his signature masterful prose, Whitehead paints a vivid picture of a city in transformation, where gleaming skyscrapers tower above while displaced souls take refuge in abandoned tunnels below. Cool Machine sweeps across New York-from the heights of Windows on the World to the streets of Sugar Hill-revealing that beneath the surface lies the true story of the city and its unforgettable characters.

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