by Tayari Jones
First published 2017
Atlanta Noir presents fourteen original stories that peel back the prosperity of Georgia's capital to reveal the corruption beneath. Each tale unfolds in a different Atlanta neighborhood, from downtown high-rises to suburban enclaves. Writers like Tananarive Due, Jim Grimsley, and Anthony Grooms craft stories where good guys rarely win and bad deeds flourish. The collection exposes how Atlanta's violent past, from its founding as a penal colony to Sherman's burning of the city, still poisons the present. These are not traditional crime stories but explorations of moral decay where good intentions become their own punishment. The Georgia Center for the Book selected this anthology as essential reading for all Georgians. One story, Kenji Jasper's "A Moment of Clarity at the Waffle House," earned an Edgar Award nomination. Editor Tayari Jones, author of Leaving Atlanta, introduces readers to a city built from ashes where everything that grows carries the stain of history.
Genres: fiction, short-stories, american-fiction, african-american, mystery, crime
Vibes: dark, emotional, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: moral-ambiguity, no-happy-endings
Setting: Atlanta, Georgia
Period: 20th-century, 21st-century
268 pages · Kindle Edition · Akashic Books
Content warnings: racism, violence