Listen free for 30 days
-
Harlem Shuffle
- A Novel
- Narrated by: Dion Graham
- Length: 10 hrs and 35 mins
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wish list failed.
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Buy Now for $26.22
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Publisher's Summary
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Underground Railroad and The Nickel Boys, this gloriously entertaining novel is “fast-paced, keen-eyed and very funny ... about race, power and the history of Harlem all disguised as a thrill-ride crime novel" (San Francisco Chronicle).
"Ray Carney was only slightly bent when it came to being crooked..." To his customers and neighbors on 125th street, Carney is an upstanding salesman of reasonably priced furniture, making a decent 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.
Few people know he descends from a line of uptown hoods and crooks, and that his façade of normalcy has more than a few cracks in it. Cracks that are getting bigger all the time.
Cash is tight, especially with all those installment-plan sofas, so if his cousin Freddie occasionally drops off the odd ring or necklace, Ray doesn't ask where it comes from. He knows a discreet jeweler downtown who doesn't ask questions, either.
Then Freddie falls in with a crew who plan to rob the Hotel Theresa—the "Waldorf of Harlem"—and volunteers Ray's services as the fence. The heist doesn't go as planned; they rarely do. Now Ray has a new clientele, one made up of shady cops, vicious local gangsters, two-bit pornographers, and other assorted Harlem lowlifes.
Thus begins the internal tussle between Ray the striver and Ray the crook. As Ray navigates this double life, he begins to see who actually pulls the strings in Harlem. 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?
Harlem Shuffle's ingenious story plays out in a beautifully recreated New York City of the early 1960s. It's a family saga masquerading as a crime novel, a hilarious morality play, a social novel about race and power, and ultimately a love letter to Harlem.
But mostly, it's a joy to listen to, another dazzling novel from the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award-winning Colson Whitehead.
Look for Colson Whitehead’s new novel, Crook Manifesto, coming soon!
You may also enjoy...
-
Erasure
- A Novel
- Written by: Percival Everett
- Narrated by: Sean Crisden
- Length: 8 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Thelonious "Monk" Ellison's writing career has bottomed out: his latest manuscript has been rejected by seventeen publishers, which stings all the more because his previous novels have been "critically acclaimed." He seethes on the sidelines of the literary establishment as he watches the meteoric success of We's Lives in Da Ghetto, a first novel by a woman who once visited "some relatives in Harlem for a couple of days."
-
-
This really works as an audiobook.
- By Amazon Customer on 2024-03-22
Written by: Percival Everett
-
The Nickel Boys (Winner 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction)
- A Novel
- Written by: Colson Whitehead
- Narrated by: JD Jackson, Colson Whitehead
- Length: 6 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Elwood Curtis, a black boy growing up in 1960s Tallahassee, is unfairly sentenced to a juvenile reformatory called the Nickel Academy, he finds himself trapped in a grotesque chamber of horrors. Elwood’s only salvation is his friendship with fellow “delinquent” Turner, which deepens despite Turner’s conviction that Elwood is hopelessly naive, that the world is crooked, and that the only way to survive is to scheme and avoid trouble.
-
-
Hard to love, even harder to forget
- By S. Richards on 2020-06-19
Written by: Colson Whitehead
-
Snow
- A Novel
- Written by: John Banville
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 8 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The incomparable Booker Prize winner’s next great crime novel - the story of a family whose secrets resurface when a parish priest is found murdered in their ancestral home. Detective Inspector St. John Strafford has been summoned to County Wexford to investigate a murder. A parish priest has been found dead in Ballyglass House, the family seat of the aristocratic, secretive Osborne family.
-
-
over blown characters
- By d on 2021-01-02
Written by: John Banville
-
Normal Women
- Nine Hundred Years of Making History
- Written by: Philippa Gregory
- Narrated by: Philippa Gregory, Clare Corbett, Tania Rodrigues, and others
- Length: 27 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Did you know that there are more penises than women in the Bayeux Tapestry? That the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381 was started and propelled by women who were protesting a tax on women? Or that Charles Darwin believed not just that women were naturally inferior to men, but that they’d evolve to become ever more inferior? These are just a few of the startling findings you will learn from listening to Philippa Gregory’s Normal Women. In this ambitious book, she tells the story of England over 900 years, for the very first time placing women—some fifty per cent of the population—center stage.
-
-
Fantastic!
- By Shannon on 2024-03-27
Written by: Philippa Gregory
-
The Book of Lost Friends
- A Novel
- Written by: Lisa Wingate
- Narrated by: Sophie Amoss, Sullivan Jones, Robin Miles, and others
- Length: 15 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the best-selling author of Before We Were Yours comes a dramatic historical novel of three young women searching for family amid the destruction of the post-Civil War South, and of a modern-day teacher who learns of their story and its vital connection to her students’ lives.
-
-
a satisfying and aurhentic read
- By Sandra on 2020-07-09
Written by: Lisa Wingate
-
Empire
- Written by: Niall Ferguson
- Narrated by: Sean Barrett
- Length: 15 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The British Empire was the largest in all history: the nearest thing to global domination ever achieved. The world we know today is in large measure the product of Britain's age of empire. The global spread of capitalism, telecommunications, the English language, and the institutions of representative government - all these can be traced back to the extraordinary expansion of Britain's economy, population, and culture from the 17th century until the mid-20th. On a vast and vividly colored canvas, Empire shows how the British Empire acted as midwife to modernity.
-
-
great education on British colonialism
- By daniel Froese on 2023-02-03
Written by: Niall Ferguson
-
Erasure
- A Novel
- Written by: Percival Everett
- Narrated by: Sean Crisden
- Length: 8 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Thelonious "Monk" Ellison's writing career has bottomed out: his latest manuscript has been rejected by seventeen publishers, which stings all the more because his previous novels have been "critically acclaimed." He seethes on the sidelines of the literary establishment as he watches the meteoric success of We's Lives in Da Ghetto, a first novel by a woman who once visited "some relatives in Harlem for a couple of days."
-
-
This really works as an audiobook.
- By Amazon Customer on 2024-03-22
Written by: Percival Everett
-
The Nickel Boys (Winner 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction)
- A Novel
- Written by: Colson Whitehead
- Narrated by: JD Jackson, Colson Whitehead
- Length: 6 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Elwood Curtis, a black boy growing up in 1960s Tallahassee, is unfairly sentenced to a juvenile reformatory called the Nickel Academy, he finds himself trapped in a grotesque chamber of horrors. Elwood’s only salvation is his friendship with fellow “delinquent” Turner, which deepens despite Turner’s conviction that Elwood is hopelessly naive, that the world is crooked, and that the only way to survive is to scheme and avoid trouble.
-
-
Hard to love, even harder to forget
- By S. Richards on 2020-06-19
Written by: Colson Whitehead
-
Snow
- A Novel
- Written by: John Banville
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 8 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The incomparable Booker Prize winner’s next great crime novel - the story of a family whose secrets resurface when a parish priest is found murdered in their ancestral home. Detective Inspector St. John Strafford has been summoned to County Wexford to investigate a murder. A parish priest has been found dead in Ballyglass House, the family seat of the aristocratic, secretive Osborne family.
-
-
over blown characters
- By d on 2021-01-02
Written by: John Banville
-
Normal Women
- Nine Hundred Years of Making History
- Written by: Philippa Gregory
- Narrated by: Philippa Gregory, Clare Corbett, Tania Rodrigues, and others
- Length: 27 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Did you know that there are more penises than women in the Bayeux Tapestry? That the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381 was started and propelled by women who were protesting a tax on women? Or that Charles Darwin believed not just that women were naturally inferior to men, but that they’d evolve to become ever more inferior? These are just a few of the startling findings you will learn from listening to Philippa Gregory’s Normal Women. In this ambitious book, she tells the story of England over 900 years, for the very first time placing women—some fifty per cent of the population—center stage.
-
-
Fantastic!
- By Shannon on 2024-03-27
Written by: Philippa Gregory
-
The Book of Lost Friends
- A Novel
- Written by: Lisa Wingate
- Narrated by: Sophie Amoss, Sullivan Jones, Robin Miles, and others
- Length: 15 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the best-selling author of Before We Were Yours comes a dramatic historical novel of three young women searching for family amid the destruction of the post-Civil War South, and of a modern-day teacher who learns of their story and its vital connection to her students’ lives.
-
-
a satisfying and aurhentic read
- By Sandra on 2020-07-09
Written by: Lisa Wingate
-
Empire
- Written by: Niall Ferguson
- Narrated by: Sean Barrett
- Length: 15 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The British Empire was the largest in all history: the nearest thing to global domination ever achieved. The world we know today is in large measure the product of Britain's age of empire. The global spread of capitalism, telecommunications, the English language, and the institutions of representative government - all these can be traced back to the extraordinary expansion of Britain's economy, population, and culture from the 17th century until the mid-20th. On a vast and vividly colored canvas, Empire shows how the British Empire acted as midwife to modernity.
-
-
great education on British colonialism
- By daniel Froese on 2023-02-03
Written by: Niall Ferguson
-
Everybody Knows
- A Novel
- Written by: Jordan Harper
- Narrated by: Megan Tusing, William DeMeritt
- Length: 9 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Welcome to Mae Pruett’s Los Angeles, where “Nobody talks. But everybody whispers.” As a “black-bag” publicist tasked not with letting the good news out but keeping the bad news in, Mae works for one of LA’s most powerful and sought-after crisis PR firms, at the center of a sprawling web of lawyers, PR flaks, and private security firms she calls “The Beast.” They protect the rich and powerful and depraved by any means necessary.
-
-
a story written to be a movie
- By shadi masri on 2023-04-05
Written by: Jordan Harper
-
Prophet Song
- Written by: Paul Lynch
- Narrated by: Gerry O'Brien
- Length: 8 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On a dark, wet evening in Dublin, scientist and mother of four Eilish Stack answers her front door to find the GNSB on her step. Two officers from Ireland’s newly formed secret police are here to interrogate her husband, a trade unionist. Ireland is falling apart. The country is in the grip of a government turning towards tyranny and when her husband disappears, Eilish finds herself caught within the nightmare logic of a society that is quickly unravelling.
-
-
Gripping tale
- By Amazon Customer on 2023-12-20
Written by: Paul Lynch
-
Novelist as a Vocation
- Written by: Haruki Murakami, Philip Gabriel - translator, Ted Goossen - translator
- Narrated by: Kotaro Watanabe
- Length: 7 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this engaging book, the internationally best-selling author and famously private writer Haruki Murakami shares with listeners his thoughts on the role of the novel in our society; his own origins as a writer; and his musings on the sparks of creativity that inspire other writers, artists, and musicians.
-
-
Great for writers
- By Daveo on 2023-01-16
Written by: Haruki Murakami, and others
-
Time's Echo
- The Second World War, the Holocaust, and the Music of Remembrance
- Written by: Jeremy Eichler
- Narrated by: Jeremy Eichler, Sherrill Milnes
- Length: 11 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1785, when the great German poet Friedrich Schiller penned his immortal “Ode to Joy,” he crystallized the deepest hopes and dreams of the European Enlightenment for a new era of peace and freedom, a time when millions would be embraced as equals. Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony then gave wing to Schiller’s words, but barely a century later these same words were claimed by Nazi propagandists and twisted by a barbarism so complete that it ruptured, as one philosopher put it, “the deep layer of solidarity among all who wear a human face.”
-
-
A fantastic window into history.
- By Pauline on 2023-09-27
Written by: Jeremy Eichler
-
Tripping on Utopia
- Margaret Mead, the Cold War, and the Troubled Birth of Psychedelic Science
- Written by: Benjamin Breen
- Narrated by: Suzanne Toren
- Length: 12 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A bold and brilliant revisionist take on the history of psychedelics in the twentieth century, illuminating how a culture of experimental drugs shaped the Cold War and the birth of Silicon Valley....
Written by: Benjamin Breen
-
The Trees
- A Novel
- Written by: Percival Everett
- Narrated by: Bill Andrew Quinn
- Length: 7 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Percival Everett's The Trees is a must-listen that opens with a series of brutal murders in the rural town of Money, Mississippi. When a pair of detectives from the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation arrive, they meet expected resistance from the local sheriff, his deputy, the coroner, and a string of racist White townsfolk. The murders present a puzzle, for at each crime scene there is a second dead body: that of a man who resembles Emmett Till.
-
-
It could have been great but is only mediocre
- By Madeleine Duvall on 2023-08-12
Written by: Percival Everett
What the critics say
A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR • NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE NOMINEE • New York Times Book Review 100 Notable Books of the Year • One of The Washington Posts 50 Notable Works of Fiction of the Year • TIME Magazine 100 Must Read Books of the Year • One of the Best Books of the Year: NPR, Slate, Boston Globe, Town & Country, Vulture, and more • One of President Obama's Favorite Books of the Year • One of The New York Times Critics' Best Books of the Year
“A rich, wild book that could pass for genre fiction. It’s much more, but the entertainment value alone should ensure it the same kind of popular success that greeted his last two novels, The Underground Railroad and The Nickel Boys."—Janet Maslin, The New York Times
One of the Ten Best Books of 2021—Laura Miller, Slate
“Colson Whitehead has a couple of Pulitzers under his belt, along with several other awards celebrating his outstanding novels. Harlem Shuffle is a suspenseful crime thriller that's sure to add to the tally—it's a fabulous novel you must read.”—NPR.org
What listeners say about Harlem Shuffle
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Jaya
- 2023-06-21
Every line a poem
I went to dinner just as the final scene was coming together and I could not shut up about the tension! Which way will things go?! Favourite line: the fan nudging the air
(Approximately—i might have to buy the paper book so I can underline all the gems).
I think I downloaded this book having only heard that the protagonist practices a sort of two-sleep night, which I’d heard was “the natural” way to sleep (doze at dusk, wake in the wee hours for a few hours, then sleep again till morn). Fell inlove with the feeling and rhythm of 60s Harlem.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Bob Tyrrell
- 2024-01-17
Good stuff!!!
A storyteller and brilliant wordsmith at the top of his game. Every word of dialogue rings true.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Elska
- 2023-01-05
Cinematic
Can’t wait for this to be shot for the screen. Well written, of course, and significantly more distance between its subjects and their traumas than the previous novel. Similar but nowhere near as outlandish as White Tiger: morally troubled protagonist in difficult circumstances as history whizzes past in the foreground.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Colins
- 2021-10-10
Trip in time
Thoroughly enjoyed my third novel but first audible by Colson Whitehead. Well written and captivating. Great caper yarn that builds story and character over a time in the 60’s that offers insight and experience into life in the city during that period. . Dion Graham was the perfect narrator capturing the nuances of each character.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Lawrence MacTaggart
- 2022-10-21
FANTASTIC
FANTASTIC
I can't wait for the movie. A heist and love poem to Harlem post war.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Nicoleabouttown
- 2023-05-03
Great
I finally sat down to listen to Harlem Shuffle: A Novel by Colson Whitehead after having it on my shelf since its release day. I had no idea what to expect, and kind of went into this one with my eyes wide open. Can I just say that I loved this one and end my review there?
I think the easiest way to describe this one is a love letter to post-war Harlem. There was a cast of characters, that while I didn't get overly invested in any of them, helped to illustrate the changing times of the city around them. Some people call it progress, but it's nothing more than gentrification. It was smooth, lyrical, and flowing. With some minor adjustments, this novel set in the 1960s, could read like it is taking place today. Harlem Shuffle: A Novel is just timeless.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- AJDahl
- 2024-10-13
Great story; loved the writing; excellent narration
Loved it all. I’ll definitely keep listening to books in this series. The narrator brought the great writing to life.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Wendy
- 2024-01-15
Great start to my 2024 listening!
Wonderful book, great characters, compelling story and the narration was superb. Easily five stars.. looking forward to part two.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!