The first step in our program to bring all of Lewis Shiner’s books back into print is a big one. We’ve been entrusted with his new novel, Black & White, which, as Jonathan Lethem points out, is up to Lew’s usual fine standards: “Black & White, Lewis Shiner’s long-awaited return to the novel, is social realism so urgent and committed as to be an act of witnessing. Like books by Richard Price and George Pelecanos, Shiner’s is both a page-turner and an urban documentary with a big, fierce heart.”

Here’s a taste of what the novel is about:

When Michael follows his dying father to North Carolina, a lifetime of lies begins to unravel. His pursuit of his father’s past–haunted by voodoo, adultery and murder–takes him to a place called Hayti, once the most prosperous black community in the South. Now the mysteries of Michael’s own heritage become a matter of life and death, as racial conflicts barely restrained since the 1960s erupt again.

Rooted in the true story of the US government’s urban renewal policy and its disastrous aftermath, Black & White is a literary thriller, a family saga, and a searing portrait of institutionalized hatred.

Limited: 200 signed numbered copies, with an exclusive chapbook of uncollected short stories: $45
Trade: Fully bound cloth hardcover: $25

Posted on Monday, November 19th, 2007 at 7:30 am.