Code Noir

by Canisia Lubrin

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.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0735282218
• ISBN13: 9780735282216
• Release Date: February 2024
• Publisher: Knopf Canada
• Length: 360 Pages
• Weight: 1.23 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.0" x 9.0"