Black Dance

A dying screenwriter conjures a fascinating past in a novel “as musical as a Bach prelude” from the Prix Femina-winning author of Fault Lines (Elle, France).

Renowned screenwriter Milo Noirlac is dying. As he lies in his hospital bed, voices from his past and present come to him, each taking on the rhythm of his favorite Brazilian fight-dance, the capoeira. Seated next to him is Milo’s director, co-writer, and lover Paul Schwartz, who coaxes Milo through the complex tale that will be their final masterpiece—his life story.

From the abuse Milo suffered as a foster child, to the loss of his beloved grandfather’s priceless library, his imagination brings to life several generations of ancestors: voices in French and English, German and Dutch, Cree and Gaelic. There’s his Irish grandfather, a would-be poet, classmate of “Jimmy” Joyce, and agitator against British occupation; Awinita, Milo’s biological mother, an Indian teen prostitute; Eugénio, a Brazilian street child whom Milo finds and fosters. As each voice cascades through Milo’s memory, a fragment of history—both personal and global—falls into place.