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Fiction General

Subterrane

by (author) Valérie Bah

Publisher
Vehicule Press
Initial publish date
Oct 2024
Category
General, Literary, General
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9781550656671
    Publish Date
    Oct 2024
    List Price
    $22.95

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Description

A speculative comedy comprised of a carousel of Black and Queer voices being pushed further underground by urban prosperity.

New Stockholm, a metropolis like any other across North America, is unofficially divided between two worlds. Its upwardly mobile form the centre of its gleaming eye, but their prosperity and affluence are not the focus of Zeynab's government-funded abstract documentary. Her lens trails to the city's margins instead, in polluted industrial wastelands such as Cipher Falls, one of New Stockholm's last affordable neighbourhoods, where creatives and other anti-capitalist voices increasingly find themselves pushed into demeaning, dead-end jobs. In this growing underground network, Zeynab's lens focuses on the mysterious demise of Doudou Laguerre, whose death may be related to his activism against a construction project.

Subterrane connects us to a constellation of Black and Queer voices, the hair braiders, tattoo artists, holistic healers, weed dealers, and sidewalk horticulturists struggling to make a life in New Stockholm. Together, they illustrate how in cities across the continent, entire communities are being sidelined in the name of prosperity.

About the author

Valérie Bah is a multidisciplinary Québécois artist, filmmaker, documentarian, photographer, and writer. Bah's first collection, The Rage Letters, was translated from the French by Kama La Mackerel and published by Metonymy Press. Subterrane is their first book in English.

Valérie Bah's profile page

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