Code Noir

SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2025 CAROL SHIELDS PRIZE FOR FICTION * FINALIST FOR THE 2024 ATWOOD GIBSON WRITERS' TRUST FICTION PRIZE * FINALIST FOR THE 2024 GOVERNOR GENERAL'S LITERARY AWARD FOR FICTION * GLOBE AND MAIL'S BEST BOOKS OF 2024 * CBC'S BEST CANADIAN FICTION OF 2024 *

Groundbreaking, dazzling debut fiction from one of Canada's most exciting and admired writers.

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: 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 linked fictions-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 inventive, shape-shifting braid of stories exists far beyond the enclosures of official decrees. This is a timely, daring, virtuosic book by a young literary star. The stories are accompanied by black-and-white drawings-one at the start of each fiction-by acclaimed visual artist Torkwase Dyson.