This is fresh air, I'm Terry Gross.

My guest Carlson Whitehead won Pulitzer Prizes for two consecutive novels.

The first Pulitzer was for the Underground Railroad, an allegory about race in America

told through the stories of an escape slave and a slave catcher.

It was adapted into an Amazon series.

The second Pulitzer was for the Nickel Boys, based on the true story of a segregated state

reform school for boys, in which the boys were physically abused and dozens died.

The film adaptation, starring Anjaneu Ellis, is in the works.

After writing about those grim subjects, Whitehead started writing crime novels, said in Harlem.

These novels give him the chance to write snappy dialogue, laced with witty observations,

while writing about class and race, as well as crime and corruption at every level, from

petty criminals to cops, city politicians, and Harlem's elite.

Harlem Shuffle, the first novel in his projected Harlem trilogy, was set in the 60s.

The new novel, Crook Manifesto, takes place from 1971 to 1976.

It brings back the main character, Ray Carney, the owner of a furniture store on 125th Street

in Harlem, who takes pride in upgrading his customers' living rooms with comfortable,

quality, sofas, and recliners.

But it's the money he's earned from fencing stolen goods that's enabled him to move from

a cramped apartment to the homey owns on Harlem's driver's row.

Fencing got him deeper into crime than he was prepared for.

In the opening of Crook Manifesto, he's been retired from crime for four years, but

when his daughter insists that she needs tickets to the Jackson 5 concert, but they're

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