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Eagerly awaited debut fiction from one of Canada’s most exciting and admired writers, winner of the internationally prestigious Windham-Campbell Prize.
Canisia Lubrin's debut fiction is that rare work of art: a brilliant, startlingly original book that combines immense literary and political force. Its structure is deceptively simple and ingenious: it departs from the infamous real-life “Code Noir,” a set of historical decrees originally passed in 1685 by King Louis XIV of France defining the conditions of slavery in the French colonial empire. The original Code had fifty-nine articles; Code Noir has fifty-nine short, linked fictions that present vivid, unforgettable, multi-layered fragments, filled with globe-wise characters who desire to live beyond the ruins of the past. Ranging in style from contemporary realism to dystopia, from futuristic fantasy to historical fiction, this stream of irrepressible stories ultimately exists far beyond the enclosures of official decrees. An original, timely, culturally daring, virtuoso performance by a rising literary star. Includes fifty-nine breathtaking black-and-white drawings—one at the start of each story—by acclaimed visual artist Torkwase Dyson.
