Luster

'A taut, sharp, funny book about being young now. It's brutal – and brilliant.' – Zadie Smith, author of The Fraud Longlisted for the Women's Prize For Fiction Winner of the Dylan Thomas Prize Shortlisted for the British Book Awards Fiction Debut of the Year 'The most delicious novel I’ve read' – Candice Carty-Williams, author of Queenie Edie is just trying to survive. She’s messing up in her dead-end admin job in her all-white office. Is sleeping with all the wrong men. And has failed at the only thing that meant anything to her, painting. No one seems to care that she doesn’t really know what she’s doing with her life beyond looking for her next hook-up. And then she meets Eric, a white middle-aged archivist with a suburban family. Including a wife who has sort-of-agreed to an open marriage, and an adopted black daughter who doesn’t have a single person in her life who can show her how to do her hair. As if navigating the constantly shifting landscape of sexual and racial politics as a young black woman wasn’t already hard enough, with nowhere else left to go, Edie finds herself falling head-first into Eric’s home and family. Razor-sharp, provocatively page-turning and surprisingly tender, Luster by Raven Leilani is a painfully funny debut about what it means to be young now. A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: Guardian , New York Times , New Yorker , Boston Globe , Literary Hub , Vanity Fair , Los Angeles Times , Glamour , Time , Good Housekeeping , InStyle , NPR, O Magazine, Buzzfeed , Electric Literature , Town & Country , Wired , New Statesman , Vox , Shelf Awareness , i-D , BookPage and more. One of Barack Obama’s Favourite Books of the Year

'A taut, sharp, funny book about being young now. It's brutal-and brilliant.' - Zadie Smith Winner of the Dylan Thomas Prize Shortlisted for the British Book Awards Fiction Debut of the Year Longlisted for the Women's Prize For Fiction Edie is just trying to survive. She's messing up in her dead-end admin job in her all-white office, is sleeping with all the wrong men, and has failed at the only thing that meant anything to her, painting. No one seems to care that she doesn't really know what she's doing with her life beyond looking for her next hook-up. And then she meets Eric, a white middle-aged archivist with a suburban family, including a wife who has sort-of-agreed to an open marriage and an adopted black daughter who doesn't have a single person in her life who can show her how to do her hair. As if navigating the constantly shifting landscape of sexual and racial politics as a young black woman wasn't already hard enough, with nowhere else left to go, Edie finds herself falling head-first into Eric's home and family. Razor-sharp, provocatively page-turning and surprisingly tender, Luster by Raven Leilani is a painfully funny debut about what it means to be young now. 'A book of pure fineness, exceptional.' - Diana Evans, Guardian A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: Guardian, New York Times, New Yorker, Boston Globe, Literary Hub, Vanity Fair, Los Angeles Times, Glamour, Time, Good Housekeeping, InStyle, NPR, O Magazine, Buzzfeed, Electric Literature, Town & Country, Wired, New Statesman, Vox, Shelf Awareness, i-D, BookPage and more. One of Barack Obama's Favourite Books of 2020

A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: NPR, O Magazine, Vanity Fair , Los Angeles Times , Glamour , Shondaland, The New York Times Book Review , Boston Globe , Buzzfeed , Kirkus , Time , Good Housekeeping , InStyle , The Guardian , Literary Hub , Electric Literature , Self , The New York Public Library, Town & Country , Wired , Boston.com, Happy Mag , New Statesman , Vox , Shelf Awareness , Chatelaine, The Undefeated , Apartment Therapy , Brooklyn Based , The End of the World Review , Exile in Bookville, Lit Reactor, BookPage, i-D A FAVORITE BOOK OF THE YEAR: The New Yorker , Barack Obama A BEST BOOK FOR HOLIDAY GIFTS: AV Club , Chicago Tribune , New York Magazine/The Strategist, The Rumpus WINNER of the NBCC John Leonard Prize, the Kirkus Prize, the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, the Dylan Thomas Prize, and the VCU Cabell First Novelist Award AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER NATIONAL INDIE BESTSELLER * LOS ANGELES TIMES BESTSELLER * WASHINGTON POST BESTSELLER So delicious that it feels illicit . . . Raven Leilani's first novel reads like summer: sentences like ice that crackle or melt into a languorous drip; plot suddenly, wildly flying forward like a bike down a hill. --Jazmine Hughes, The New York Times Book Review "An irreverent intergenerational tale of race and class that's blisteringly smart and fan-yourself sexy." --Michelle Hart , O: The Oprah Magazine No one wants what no one wants. And how do we even know what we want? How do we know we're ready to take it? Edie is stumbling her way through her twenties -- sharing a subpar apartment in Bushwick, clocking in and out of her admin job, making a series of inappropriate sexual choices. She is also haltingly, fitfully giving heat and air to the art that simmers inside her. And then she meets Eric, a digital archivist with a family in New Jersey, including an autopsist wife who has agreed to an open marriage -- with rules . As if navigating the constantly shifting landscapes of contemporary sexual manners and racial politics weren't hard enough, Edie finds herself unemployed and invited into Eric's home--though not by Eric. She becomes a hesitant ally to his wife and a de facto role model to his adopted daughter. Edie may be the only Black woman young Akila knows. Irresistibly unruly and strikingly beautiful, razor-sharp and slyly comic, sexually charged and utterly absorbing, Raven Leilani's Luster is a portrait of a young woman trying to make sense of her life--her hunger, her anger--in a tumultuous era. It is also a haunting, aching description of how hard it is to believe in your own talent, and the unexpected influences that bring us into ourselves along the way.

A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: NPR, O Magazine, Vanity Fair , Los Angeles Times , Glamour , Shondaland, The New York Times Book Review , Boston Globe , Buzzfeed , Kirkus , Time , Good Housekeeping , InStyle , The Guardian , Literary Hub , Electric Literature , Self , The New York Public Library, Town & Country , Wired , Boston.com, Happy Mag , New Statesman , Vox , Shelf Awareness , Chatelaine, The Undefeated , Apartment Therapy , Brooklyn Based , The End of the World Review , Exile in Bookville, Lit Reactor, BookPage, i-D A FAVORITE BOOK OF THE YEAR: The New Yorker , Barack Obama A BEST BOOK FOR HOLIDAY GIFTS: AV Club , Chicago Tribune , New York Magazine/The Strategist, The Rumpus WINNER of the NBCC John Leonard Prize, the Kirkus Prize, the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, the Dylan Thomas Prize, and the VCU Cabell First Novelist Award AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER NATIONAL INDIE BESTSELLER * LOS ANGELES TIMES BESTSELLER * WASHINGTON POST BESTSELLER So delicious that it feels illicit . . . Raven Leilani's first novel reads like summer: sentences like ice that crackle or melt into a languorous drip; plot suddenly, wildly flying forward like a bike down a hill. --Jazmine Hughes, The New York Times Book Review "An irreverent intergenerational tale of race and class that's blisteringly smart and fan-yourself sexy." --Michelle Hart , O: The Oprah Magazine No one wants what no one wants. And how do we even know what we want? How do we know we're ready to take it? Edie is stumbling her way through her twenties -- sharing a subpar apartment in Bushwick, clocking in and out of her admin job, making a series of inappropriate sexual choices. She is also haltingly, fitfully giving heat and air to the art that simmers inside her. And then she meets Eric, a digital archivist with a family in New Jersey, including an autopsist wife who has agreed to an open marriage -- with rules . As if navigating the constantly shifting landscapes of contemporary sexual manners and racial politics weren't hard enough, Edie finds herself unemployed and invited into Eric's home--though not by Eric. She becomes a hesitant ally to his wife and a de facto role model to his adopted daughter. Edie may be the only Black woman young Akila knows. Irresistibly unruly and strikingly beautiful, razor-sharp and slyly comic, sexually charged and utterly absorbing, Raven Leilani's Luster is a portrait of a young woman trying to make sense of her life--her hunger, her anger--in a tumultuous era. It is also a haunting, aching description of how hard it is to believe in your own talent, and the unexpected influences that bring us into ourselves along the way.