Written in the style of a dark social satire, Maurice Carlos Ruffin’s novel We Cast a Shadow takes place in the American South several decades in the future, where revisionist history is commonplace and racism is freely practiced. The narrator is an unnamed man who is one of the only Black lawyers at a giant corporate firm. Troubled by the frightening future he envisions for his young son Nigel, the narrator obsessively pursues a promotion in order to finance a controversial procedure that would turn Nigel's skin white. Exploring themes of fatherhood, addiction, and progress, the narrator’s desire to protect his son ultimately destroys his family and himself.
