In the aftermath of a Memory War, society is fragmented into strange new cultures, castes and coalitions. Set against a backdrop of retrofitted food garages, microchip-sorting factories and hyperloop terminals, Whitney French brings us a dazzling novel-in-verse where memory is the highest currency and love, like all revolutions, is dangerous, unruly and singed with hope.
O and Z are two young women searching for purpose in a world where a decades-long earthquake reverberates through the Earth's crust, and the population scrambles to hide from deadly acid rain. Descended from space pirates, O is drawn to the sky, while Z is earthbound, a skilled forager with connections to the black market. The two become travel companions and lovers until, torn between choosing their values or each other, a fateful decision must be made at the el Corazón space station.
In this speculative and intoxicating novel, French offers readers an intricate future-world that resonates so powerfully with our own, as it explores a people gripped in the war-torn politics of migration, memory-keeping, labour, and survival.
About the Author :
Whitney French (she/her) is a writer, educator and publisher. She is the editor of the award-winning anthology Black Writers Matter (University of Regina, 2019) and Griot: Six Writers' Sojourn into the Dark (Penguin Random House, 2022). Whitney is a Black futurist who explores memory, loss, technology and nature in her work. She is a certified arts educator and an Assistant Professor in Creative Writing at the University of British Colombia. She is also the co-founder and publisher of Hush Harbour, the only Black queer feminist press in Canada.
Review :
"it is vigorous, insistent, and stimulating, the sort of book that sets you off in an unexpected new direction--the sort of book that you will find yourself endlessly puzzling over without ever being able to quite get it out of your head."
--Paul Kincaid "Strange Horizons" (1/12/2026 12:00:00 AM)
"Whitney French's new novel-in-verse, Syncopation, is a beautiful, challenging narrative ... Syncopation is ultimately a story about memory, history, and the dangers of forgetting far more than it is a story about ill-fated love in unlikely circumstances."
--Zoe McKenna "The British Columbia Review" (1/14/2026 12:00:00 AM)
