We Cast a Shadow
A Novel
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Narrated by:
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Dion Graham
About this listen
"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.
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Critic reviews
"We Cast a Shadow asks some of the most important questions fiction can ask, and it does so with energetic and acrobatic prose, hilarious wordplay and great heart.... Love is at the core of this funny, beautiful novel.... At any moment, Ruffin can summon the kind of magic that makes you want to slow down, reread and experience the pleasure of him crystallizing an image again.... Read this book." (Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, The New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice)
"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)
"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.... [Ruffin] can drive his story to the outer limits and beyond, and never lose the threads of bitter reality that make it so haunting. We Cast a Shadow soars on Ruffin’s unerring vision." (Renée Graham, The Boston Globe)
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Story
Grad student Will Dillard has largely buried memories of the summer he spent at a camp intended to "cure" homosexuality. But when he finds out a horror movie based on the camp is hitting theaters, he's forced to face his past - and his role in another camper's death. As he recounts the events surrounding his "failed rehabilitation", Will strikes out on an impromptu road trip back home to Mississippi, eventually returning to the abandoned campgrounds to solve the mysteries of that pivotal summer.
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A story full of heart and healing
- By ZippyBippy on 05-06-18
By: Nick White
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The Last Policeman
- The Last Policeman, Book 1
- By: Ben H. Winters
- Narrated by: Peter Berkrot
- Length: 8 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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What’s the point in solving murders if we’re all going to die soon, anyway? Detective Hank Palace has faced this question ever since asteroid 2011GV1 hovered into view. There’s no chance left. No hope. Just six precious months until impact. The economy spirals downward while crops rot in the fields. Churches and synagogues are packed. People all over the world are walking off the job—but not Hank Palace. He’s investigating a death by hanging in a city that sees a dozen suicides every week—except this one feels suspicious, and Palace is the only cop who cares.
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Not your regular mystery
- By Victor @ theAudiobookBlog dot com on 09-20-16
By: Ben H. Winters
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Double Feature
- A Novel
- By: Owen King
- Narrated by: Holter Graham
- Length: 16 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Unraveling the tumultuous, decades-spanning story of the Dolan family’s friends, lovers, and adversaries, Double Feature is about letting go of everything - regret, resentment, ambition, dignity, moving pictures, the dead - and taking it again from the top. Combining propulsive storytelling and mordant wit against the backdrop of indie filmmaking, Double Feature brims with a deep understanding of the trials of ambition and art, of relationships and life, and of our attempts to survive it all.
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Worst book ever! Well maybe.
- By Randall on 08-11-17
By: Owen King
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The Wangs vs. the World
- By: Jade Chang
- Narrated by: Nancy Wu
- Length: 14 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Charles Wang is mad at America. A brash, lovable immigrant businessman who built a cosmetics empire and made a fortune, he's just been ruined by the financial crisis. Now all Charles wants is to get his kids safely stowed away so that he can go to China and attempt to reclaim his family's ancestral lands - and his pride. Outrageously funny and full of charm, The Wangs vs. the World is an entirely fresh look at what it means to belong in America - and how going from glorious riches to (still name-brand) rags brings one family together in a way money never could.
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Spectacular
- By Barbara on 10-11-16
By: Jade Chang
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Make Something Up
- Stories You Can't Unread
- By: Chuck Palahniuk
- Narrated by: Chuck Palahniuk, Scott Sowers, Rich Orlow, and others
- Length: 11 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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For years Chuck Palahniuk has reserved his best storytelling for his readings, often choosing to read a new short story instead of whatever novel he is supposed to be promoting. Make Something Up compiles these previously unpublished tales for the very first time, plus the Byliner social media insta-classic "Phoenix" and Palahniuk's most notable pieces from Playboy.
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Plenty of shock, just not enough Palahniuk awe
- By Darwin8u on 06-10-15
By: Chuck Palahniuk
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Stories
- All-New Tales
- By: Neil Gaiman - author/editor, Al Sarrantonio - editor, Joe Hill, and others
- Narrated by: Anne Bobby, Jonathan Davis, Katherine Kellgren, and others
- Length: 18 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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The best stories pull readers in and keep them turning the pages, eager to discover more—to find the answer to the question: "And then what happened?" The true hallmark of great literature is great imagination, and as Neil Gaiman and Al Sarrantonio prove with this outstanding collection, when it comes to great fiction, all genres are equal.
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Something for Everyone
- By Nicole on 05-24-17
By: Neil Gaiman - author/editor, and others
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Crimes by Moonlight
- Mysteries from the Dark Side
- By: Charlaine Harris - author/editor
- Narrated by: Natalie Ross
- Length: 12 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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In number-one New York Times best-selling author Charlaine Harris’s "Dahlia Underground,” venerable vampire Dahlia Lynley-Chivers survives an attack by an anti-vampire terrorist group, only to show them they tried to blow up the wrong bloodsucker. Bailey Ruth Raeburn, a ghost assigned to assist humans in trouble, steps into the middle of a marital dispute with surprising twists in Carolyn Hart’s “Riding High”....
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Pleasantly surprised
- By Bonnie on 08-06-11
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This Side of the Sky
- By: Elyse Singleton
- Narrated by: Myra Taylor, Sharon Washington, Richard Ferrone
- Length: 11 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Award-winning journalist Elyse Singleton delivers what Essence calls “a gem - the perfect book to curl up with.”
Best friends Lilian and Myraleen, two African American women from rural Mississippi, travel to Europe during World War II to act as members of the Women’s Army Corps. During this time of segregation and destruction, both women discover love and heartbreak, triumph and defeat.
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A Breath of Fresh Air
- By Adina Andreu on 07-19-12
By: Elyse Singleton
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X
- A Novel
- By: Ilyasah Shabazz, Kekla Magoon
- Narrated by: Dion Graham, Ilyasah Shabazz
- Length: 8 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Malcolm Little's parents have always told him that he can achieve anything, but from what he can tell, that's nothing but a pack of lies - after all, his father's been murdered, his mother's been taken away, and his dreams of becoming a lawyer have gotten him laughed out of school. There's no point in trying, he figures, and lured by the nightlife of Boston and New York, he escapes into a world of fancy suits, jazz, girls, and reefer.
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Very well written
- By jeff on 06-29-15
By: Ilyasah Shabazz, and others
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A Nail Through The Heart
- A Poke Rafferty Thriller
- By: Timothy Hallinan
- Narrated by: Victor Bevine
- Length: 10 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Poke Rafferty was writing offbeat travel guides for the young and terminally bored when Bangkok stole his heart. Now the American expat is assembling a new family with Rose, the former go-go dancer he wants to marry, and Miaow, the tiny, streetwise urchin he wants to adopt. But trouble in the guise of good intentions comes calling just when everything is beginning to work out.
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Ever been to Bangkok?
- By Richard Delman on 12-11-11
By: Timothy Hallinan
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Our Little Secret
- By: Roz Nay
- Narrated by: Erin Moon
- Length: 6 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Angela is being held in a police interrogation room. Her ex's wife has gone missing, and Detective Novak is sure Angela knows something, despite her claim that she's not involved. At Novak's prodding, Angela tells a story going back 10 years, explaining how she met and fell in love with her high school friend HP. But as her past unfolds, she reveals a disconcerting love triangle and a dark, tangled web of betrayals. Is Angela a scorned ex-lover with criminal intent? Or a pawn in someone else's revenge scheme?
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Amazing
- By lisa on 12-31-19
By: Roz Nay
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Too Bright to Hear Too Loud to See
- By: Juliann Garey
- Narrated by: Dan Butler
- Length: 11 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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In her tour-de-force first novel, Juliann Garey takes us inside the restless mind, ravaged heart, and anguished soul of Greyson Todd, a successful Hollywood studio executive who leaves his wife and young daughter and for a decade travels the world giving free reign to the bipolar disorder he's been forced to keep hidden for almost 20 years.
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Psychosis or Syphilis?
- By Vira on 04-02-13
By: Juliann Garey
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The Beach Trees
- By: Karen White
- Narrated by: Ki Gottberg, Gin Hammond
- Length: 15 hrs and 6 mins
- Abridged
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For Julie Holt, travelling to the beautiful but ravaged coast of Biloxi, Mississippi, is a journey into a secret past, and a life she never expected.... Julie first knew loss at the age of 12, when her sister disappeared, never to be found. As her once close-knit family grew apart, Julie's mother obsessively searched for the girl, and when her mother died, Julie took up the search, never letting go of the hope. Then, at an art exhibition in New York, she meets Monica....
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The ending was very weak
- By Missi Boyd on 10-31-16
By: Karen White
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Playing Dead
- A Novel
- By: Julia Heaberlin
- Narrated by: Madeleine Lambert
- Length: 10 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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The perfume-scented letter that turns Tommie McCloud’s world upside down arrives from a stranger only days after her father’s death. The woman who wrote it claims that Tommie is her daughter—and that she was kidnapped as a baby thirty-one years ago. Tommie wants to believe it’s all a hoax, but suddenly a girl who grew up on a Texas ranch finds herself inextricably linked to a horrific past: the slaughter of a family in Chicago, the murder of an Oklahoma beauty queen, and the kidnapping of a little girl named Adriana.
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I tried but I just couldn't
- By Kathryn on 09-17-12
By: Julia Heaberlin
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Pay Dirt Road
- By: Samantha Jayne Allen
- Narrated by: Sandy Rustin
- Length: 8 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Annie McIntyre has a love/hate relationship with Garnett, Texas. Recently graduated from college and home waitressing, lacking not in ambition but certainly in direction, Annie is lured into the family business—a private investigation firm—by her supposed-to-be-retired grandfather, Leroy, despite the rest of the clan's misgivings.
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Great Narration
- By Cindy Buell NZ on 05-04-22
What listeners say about We Cast a Shadow
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Stormy
- 11-27-23
It was sad
Set in the southern US in the not-too-far-future, We Cast A Shadow describes a frightening society where people of color can undergo a medical procedure that turns dark skin white. Called “demelanization,” the process is expensive and painful, yet the unnamed narrator of this story is obsessed with getting a bonus at work, so he can afford to force his teenage son, Nigel, to turn his skin white.
The book is at times humorous, but overall sad. I disliked the narrator yet sympathized somewhat with his misguided love for his son.
I enjoyed the writing style and the meaningful topics of racial identity that the author explores. Parts of the book dragged for me, but as a whole I was engaged with reading it.
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- Bobbythebearded
- 01-15-20
great narration
The narration is top-notch, but the story gets a bit like a fever dream towards the late middle to ending.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Marilou
- 02-25-23
Recommended
Couldn’t quite get on board with the story line even though I wanted to - thanks
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- D. Paige
- 05-04-23
The narrator was awesome...
Dion Graham knocked this narration out of the park. They don't call him the "Golden Voice" for nothing. It wasn't that he necessarily nailed a feminine or old character when it came to voicing them, but the nuance with which he read even the non-speaking parts after dialogue that normally get a neutral or flat voice. It gave the story a very rich and melodic composition. The actual story was a little hectic. You couldn't really tell if it was futuristic, dystopian or ripped out of the Reconstruction Era. There were mentions of very modern music, technology and culture, but very clearly the discussion of racism and segregation made the exact timeframe murky. Which was the point, because for many families the direct prejudice and discrimination they experience could be pulled right out of pretty much any point in time in our history. This has a direct link to how the antagonist (or protagonist depending on how you view him) goes about trying to protect his son throughout the novel, including addiction to anxiety medication and experimental treatment. I don't care for books being divided into parts when there is no exceptionally distinct change of plot line or character development and this had 4 parts which I didn't think were completely necessary, but it was a pretty good read overall.
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- Kimberly Hudson Brown
- 03-12-20
Got lost.
It started out strong and interesting. Then is went all over the place and seemed just as lost as the main character.
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3 people found this helpful
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- chetyarbrough.blog
- 01-30-23
I AM WHAT I AM
Maurice Carlos Ruffin’s story is about understanding discrimination and where it stands in America today. Ruffin’s creativity as a writer of fiction is on display in “We Cast a Shadow”. Though Ruffin’s imagination rambles too far at the end of his story, he offers a strong opinion about his generation’s view of 21st century America.
The book title and the author’s characters flood a listener with thoughts of history, worry, and hope. Ruffin writes a story about four generations of a fictional black family. He reaches back to the main character’s grandfather, his father, the main character (a successful lawyer practicing law), and his young son. Worry comes from how far social and economic equality must go to be real. Hope comes from believing America will get there.
Every parent makes mistakes in raising their children. This father’s mistake is to obsess over a birth mark without recognizing what is most important, i.e., a parent must love a child, while allowing them to become who they choose to be.
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- Serena Mcpherson
- 02-08-21
“Futuristic” till you realize it’s not (in a good way)
First of all, I am a white woman in my 30’s and that’s important bc this book will hit dif groups very differently.
This book is supposedly set in the future and there are some elements of technology and the extreme situation of segregation that could be futuristic but you start to realize this book is a study tool in what micro-aggressions and white fear look like for the black community. I thought situations in the book were a little more extreme then most of every day America currently but I began to realize that black people and minorities all over the world currently experience the situations laid out here.
The point of this book is not to have a riveting plot that drives your page turning. The point, in my estimation, is to examine a man’s life through his own eyes, a man who is trying desperately to be something other than what he is. He experiences deep self-loathing but he doesn’t necessarily see it that way.
It is really uncomfortable to read how so many racist beliefs have sunk into this black man’s core but he is likable and earnest in his way. I valued this book as a peek to where white supremacy could take us. It’s pretty unsettling but I highly recommend it to help you examine pitfalls you may fall into and to recognize the seeds of lies in your own thinking if you are white.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Jade Hawk
- 02-03-19
Fantastic
A fantastic piece of speculative fiction of a reactionary America that is as disturbing as it is familiar. Quick paced and dynamic. Ruffin presents a nightmare whose roots lay at our feet every moment of every day. Bravo to the author and the narrator for their work.
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8 people found this helpful
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- Barbara S
- 09-21-19
Amazing!
Graham is the perfect performer for Ruffin’s story. This is a fantastic story about racism that will leave an impression on your views of our world and where we could be going if unchecked. One of my favorite stories of 2019.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Penny Diggs
- 02-25-20
A rough ride worth the Journey
The main character was tough to like bit the story made it worthwhile. Narration was excellent and made the main character likable even if he couldnt always make him relatable.
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3 people found this helpful