***WINNER OF THE 2025 CAROL SHIELDS PRIZE FOR FICTION***
WINNER OF THE 2024 DANUTA GLEED LITERARY AWARD SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2025 TRILLIUM BOOK AWARD 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 arta 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 fictionsvivid, 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 drawingsone at the start of each fictionby acclaimed visual artist Torkwase Dyson.

Paperback | 360 pages | 5.18″ x 8.00″