I'm Gilbert Cruz, editor of the New York Times Book Review and this is the Book Review

Podcast Special Edition.

This summer, in addition to our regular episodes, we'll have a series of interviews with authors

whose books made our list of the 100 best books of the 21st century.

Today I'm joined by Coulson Whitehead.

Most recently, the author of Crook Manifesto in Harlem Shuffle to crime novel set in Harlem Recently the

author of Crook Manifesto and Harlem Shuffle to crime novel set in Harlem during the 60s and 70s

he is sometimes known as the writer of two Pulitzer Prize winning novels

The Nickel Boys and The Underground Railroad.

It's that last book that we're here to discuss today because it's one of the top 10 books

of this century has chosen by our panel of more than 500 writers.

Coulson, you've been here a few times, so it's a pleasure to welcome you back to the book review podcast.

How do you do? How do you do?

A note to everyone, we're going to talk in full about this book, which has been out for many years.

I'm going to briefly summarize it. It imagines... which has been out for many years.

I'm going to briefly summarize it.

It imagines in America in which the underground railroad

is a literal thing, a series of trains and tunnels

and conductors and station agents who help enslave people escape their

bondage from the South, the American South to the North.

The Brooks protagonist is Cora, who runs away from her plantation with a man named Caesar, and she

finds herself moving through a procession of southern states, all of which have their own laws

...