NEW YORK (AP) 鈥� Colson Whitehead's latest literary honor feels very much at home.
The author's 鈥淐rook Manifesto,鈥� a crime story set in 1970s Harlem and centered on a beleaguered furniture store owner, is this year's winner of the Gotham Book Prize for an outstanding work about New York City. The $50,000 award was established four years ago by bookstore owner-philanthropist Bradley Tusk and political strategist Howard Wolfson.
鈥矯rook Manifesto is a portrait of a man, but also his city," Whitehead, a native New Yorker, said in a statement Wednesday. 鈥淐apturing the dynamism of my hometown and its crazy citizens is at the heart of the project, so I can鈥檛 express how lovely it is for the book to be recognized by the Gotham Book Prize.鈥�
In a joint statement, Tusk and Wolfson praised Whitehead's novel as the kind of book they had hoped to celebrate, one that captures 鈥渢he city in all of its complexity.鈥�
Previous winners of the Gotham Prize include Andrea Elliott's nonfiction 鈥淚nvisible Child鈥� and the James McBride novel 鈥淒eacon King Kong.鈥�
Whitehead is among the country's most celebrated authors, a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner whose works include 鈥淭he Underground Railroad鈥� and 鈥淭he Nickel Boys." He has called 鈥淐rook Manifesto鈥� the second book of a planned Harlem trilogy, which began in 2021 with 鈥淗arlem Shuffle.鈥�
Hillel Italie, The Associated Press
