Razor sharp, provocatively page-turning and surprisingly tender, Luster by Raven Leilani is a painfully funny debut.
'A taut, sharp, funny book about being young now. It's brutalâand brilliant.' - Zadie Smith, author of White Teeth
'A book of pure fineness, exceptional.' â Diana Evans, Guardian
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. Sheâs 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 doesnât really know what sheâs 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 doesnât 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 wasnât already hard enough, with nowhere else left to go, Edie finds herself falling head-first into Ericâs home and family.
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 Obamaâs Favourite Books of 2020
Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle John Leonard Prize, the PEN/Hemingway Award.
'A giddy joy, crafted with mischievous perfection.' â Mail on Sunday
