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We Cast a Shadow
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  • Published: 4 February 2020
  • ISBN: 9780525509073
  • Imprint: Random House US Group
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 352
  • RRP: $39.99

We Cast a Shadow

A Novel

Formats & editions
EBook
29 Jan 2019
Audiobook
29 Jan 2019
Paperback
4 Feb 2020
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A "razor-sharp debut from an urgent new voice of fiction," (NPR) about a father's obsessive quest to protect his son--even if it means turning him white.

“An incisive and necessary” (Roxane Gay) debut for fans of Get Out and Paul Beatty’s The Sellout, about a father’s obsessive quest to protect his son—even if it means turning him white

“Stunning and audacious . . . at once a pitch-black comedy, a chilling horror story and an endlessly perceptive novel about the possible future of race in America.”—NPR

LONGLISTED FOR THE DUBLIN LITERARY AWARD, THE CENTER FOR FICTION FIRST NOVEL PRIZE, THE PEN/OPEN BOOK AWARD, AND THE PEN/FAULKNER AWARD • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY NPR AND THE WASHINGTON POST

“You can be beautiful, even more beautiful than before.” This is the seductive promise of Dr. Nzinga’s clinic, where anyone can get their lips thinned, their skin bleached, and their nose narrowed. A complete demelanization will liberate you from the confines of being born in a black body—if you can afford it.

In this near-future Southern city plagued by fenced-in ghettos and police violence, more and more residents are turning to this experimental medical procedure. Like any father, our narrator just wants the best for his son, Nigel, a biracial boy whose black birthmark is getting bigger by the day. The darker Nigel becomes, the more frightened his father feels. But how far will he go to protect his son? And will he destroy his family in the process?

This electrifying, hallucinatory novel is at once a keen satire of surviving racism in America and a profoundly moving family story. At its center is a father who just wants his son to thrive in a broken world. Maurice Carlos Ruffin’s work evokes the clear vision of Ralph Ellison, the dizzying menace of Franz Kafka, and the crackling prose of Vladimir Nabokov. We Cast a Shadow fearlessly shines a light on the violence we inherit, and on the desperate things we do for the ones we love.
  • Published: 4 February 2020
  • ISBN: 9780525509073
  • Imprint: Random House US Group
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 352
  • RRP: $39.99
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About the author

MAURICE CARLOS RUFFIN

Maurice Carlos Ruffin is the author of The American Daughters, The Ones Who Don't Say They Love You, longlisted for The Story Prize and a finalist for The Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence, and We Cast a Shadow, which was a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award, the PEN/Open Book Award, and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize and longlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize and International Dublin Literary Award. A recipient of an Iowa Review Award in fiction, he has been published in the Virginia Quarterly Review, AGNI, the Kenyon Review, The Massachusetts Review, and Unfathomable City: A New Orleans Atlas. A native of New Orleans, he is a graduate of the University of New Orleans Creative Writing Workshop and a member of the Peauxdunque Writers Alliance.
portrait photo of MAURICE CARLOS RUFFIN

Praise for We Cast a Shadow

  • "Love is at the core of this funny, beautiful novel [that] asks some of the most important questions fiction can ask, and it does so with energetic and acrobatic prose, hilarious wordplay and great heart. . . . We Cast a Shadow churns fresh beauty from old ugliness. . . . Read this book, and ask yourself: Is this the world you want?" Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, The New York Times Book Review
  • "Stunning and audacious . . . at once a pitch-black comedy, a chilling horror story and an endlessly perceptive novel about the possible future of race in America. . . . He writes with a straight face, never in love with his own cleverness--there are echoes of Ralph Ellison's intelligent, unshowy prose." NPR
  • "We Cast a Shadow is like a dispatch from the frontlines of the African-American psyche. Written with ruthless intelligence, it's the story of a father's love and how he tries to protect his son in a country that devours black lives through violence, incarceration, and poverty. . . . We Cast a Shadow soars on Ruffin's unerring vision." Renée Graham, The Boston Globe
  • "A chilling, unforgettable cautionary tale, and one we should all read and heed." Roxane Gay, author of Bad Feminist

  • "Love is at the core of this funny, beautiful novel [that] asks some of the most important questions fiction can ask, and it does so with energetic and acrobatic prose, hilarious wordplay and great heart. . . . We Cast a Shadow churns fresh beauty from old ugliness. . . . Read this book, and ask yourself: Is this the world you want?" Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, The New York Times Book Review
  • "Stunning and audacious . . . at once a pitch-black comedy, a chilling horror story and an endlessly perceptive novel about the possible future of race in America. . . . He writes with a straight face, never in love with his own cleverness--there are echoes of Ralph Ellison's intelligent, unshowy prose." NPR
  • "We Cast a Shadow is like a dispatch from the frontlines of the African-American psyche. Written with ruthless intelligence, it's the story of a father's love and how he tries to protect his son in a country that devours black lives through violence, incarceration, and poverty. . . . We Cast a Shadow soars on Ruffin's unerring vision." Renée Graham, The Boston Globe
  • "A chilling, unforgettable cautionary tale, and one we should all read and heed." Roxane Gay, author of Bad Feminist