We Cast a Shadow

Praise

“Set in the post-post-racial South, We Cast a Shadow tells the story of a man—one of the few black men at his law firm—desperate to pay for his biracial son to undergo demelanization, desperate to ‘fix’ what he sees as his son’s fatal flaw. It is this desperation that haunts this novel and, in this desperation, we see just how pernicious racism is, how irrevocably it can alter how a man sees the world, himself, and those he loves. It is a chilling, unforgettable cautionary tale, and one we should all read and heed.”—Roxane Gay, author of Bad Feminist

“Like Paul Beatty’s The Sellout and the film Get Out . . . a singular and unforgettable work of political art.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Brilliant and devastating.”—Booklist (starred review)

“Thrilling . . . We Cast a Shadow is haunted by the ghosts of Ralph Ellison and Victor LaValle. But Maurice Carlos Ruffin, as well as the terrifying racial landscape he renders, is a world unto himself.”—Naomi Jackson, author of The Star Side of Bird Hill

“A literary classic that will outlive us all, We Cast a Shadow is the finely crafted quake the American novel needed.”—Kiese Laymon, author of Heavy

“Riotously hilarious and resoundingly heartrending . . . Ruffin performs literature’s noble alchemy—making the unseen seen.”—T. Geronimo Johnson, author of Welcome to Braggsville

“An urgent, exuberant, and important work of fiction that is also wildly hilarious . . . With We Cast a Shadow, the talented Mr. Ruffin has arrived.”—Jami Attenberg, author of All Grown Up

“A disturbing, empathetic, and ultimately illuminating story about race and family. We Cast a Shadow is a glorious debut.”—Laila Lalami, Pulitzer Prize finalist for The Moor’s Account

“Imagine coming out the gate with a brilliant, powerful debut like this one. Of course, Invisible Man is a touchstone influence here, but I found myself thinking of Franz Kafka’s The Trial just as often.”—Victor LaValle, author of The Changeling

“Rakishly funny . . . [The narrator’s] intensely rhythmic and colorful voice lifts you along with him on his frenetic odyssey.”—Kirkus Reviews

“In his debut novel, Maurice Carlos Ruffin brings the South out of the past into the here-and-now, and beyond, to the future. We Cast a Shadow ranges from Nabokovian humor to ‘the lower frequencies’ invoked by Ellison’s Invisible Man—incandescent, vexing, not unlike America itself.”—Zachary Lazar, author of Vengeance

“An always inventive story of race, longing, and self . . . Like Invisible Man and The Wig before it, this novel takes all the shabby myths of race in America and sews them together into something new, an all-together wondrous fabric, to warm us in this not-so-brave new world.”—Kaitlyn Greenidge, author of We Love You, Charlie Freeman