Books like Gone to the Wolves — picked by fans

Crook Manifesto is a follow-up to Whitehead’s Harlem Shuffle. This time, set in the 70s, we return to the world of Ray Carney, now running a more successful and larger furniture store right on 125th St, in Harlem. And again, Carney is a cipher for Whitehead to explore the sights, sounds, and humanity of one of America’s most fascinating, volatile neighborhoods.

Whitehead is at the top of his game here as he captures the styles and rhythms of the city in all its glorious, bell-bottom 70s groove. Carney’s block of Harlem is a powder keg of crime and racial tension, with the Black Panthers marching in the streets, corrupt cops demanding pay for protection, and, of course, more petty crimes and con artists.

The book is peppered with rich, funny, painful moments and broken lives. He makes it look so damn easy as his language be-bops along and somehow… show more.

A truly unforgettable novel, clever and moving at the same time. Confused, lonely, and frustratingly stubborn, Cyrus Shams is his own worst enemy--the best kind of character in my opinion! Newly sober and too smart for his own good, he pours his heart into his writing but neglects the relationships that sustain him. There were times I wanted to shake him, but I never stopped routing for him to find his way, and find peace.

Scattered with Cyrus' poetry, dreams, and imagined conversations, the novel has a gorgeous literariness to it that pulled me right in as a reader. At times, I felt as if the author were on another intellectual plane, but instead of feeling lost, I felt as though my eyes were being opened to a new understanding of the world.

Cyrus immigrated to the US from Iran as a child after his mother's plane was bombed by… show more.