Subterrane

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.

REVIEWS

“This is a book that hums with high-context, sublingual information, the kind that resists total comprehension joyfully and exactingly.” -Dani Carter, Montreal Review of Books

“Irreverent, raucous, hallucinatory—this novel illuminates tendrils of beauty tumbling out from fissures of urban decay.” -Myriam J. A. Chancy, author of Village Weavers & What Storm, What Thunder

“By giving voice to a diverse, interconnected web of people as they withstand gentrification, Bah has crafted a vivid, emotional, and at times quite funny book that asks, Who can speak?” -Bronwyn Averett, Literary Review of Canada

“Subterrane is a stunning work of art—written with a precision and intimacy I’ve never encountered before. Valérie Bah defies gravity, bringing a lens to places so often left unseen.” -Chelene Knight, 2025 Amazon Canada First Novel Category Judge