"Canisia Lubrin's debut fiction combines immense literary and political force. Its departs from the infamous real-life Code Noir, a set of historical decrees 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-layer 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 fifty-nine black-and-white drawings -- one at the start of each fiction -- by acclaimed visual artist Torkwase Dyson"--