Cool Machine: A Novel (Pre-order Jul 21, 2026)

Cool Machine by Colson Whitehead Pre-Order now. On sale July 21, 2026.

From #1 New York Times bestselling author and two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Colson Whitehead comes an exuberantly entertaining novel—and the magnificent final volume of his acclaimed Harlem Trilogy.

Set against the volatile energy of 1980s New York City, Cool Machine follows the lives of Ray Carney and Pepper as the city claws its way back from financial collapse amid rampant real estate development and Reagan-era capitalism.

1981. Harlem furniture dealer Ray Carney is riding high, newly named Sterling Furniture’s Dealer of the Month. But when banks refuse his wife Elizabeth a loan for her dream travel agency, Carney risks everything on one final heist—drawing him into the orbit of a legendary criminal mastermind.

1983. Carney’s longtime associate Pepper—feared, respected, and increasingly worn down by age—takes on a bodyguard job that plunges him into the unfamiliar world of the East Village art and club scene. Whether uptown or downtown, Pepper knows one truth: violence is a universal language.

1986. Haunted by his failure to save his cousin Freddie decades earlier, Carney is given a chance at redemption when Freddie’s son is threatened by the city’s brutal undercurrents. Reuniting with Pepper will mean stepping back into a dangerous life—and risking the family and stability Carney has fought to protect.

With pitch-perfect prose and sweeping ambition, Cool Machine captures a city in transformation, where glittering skyscrapers rise above displaced lives hidden below. Roving from Harlem to downtown, from Windows on the World to the Meadowlands, Colson Whitehead delivers a powerful meditation on crime, capitalism, loyalty, and survival—and a masterful conclusion to the Harlem Trilogy.