Overview

'A taut, sharp, funny book about being young now. It's brutal-and brilliant.' Zadie Smith WINNER OF THE KIRKUS PRIZE FOR FICTION 2020 Meet Edie. Edie is not okay. 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 headfirst into Eric's home and family. Razor sharp. provocatively page-turning and surprisingly tender, Luster is a painfully funny coming-of-age story told by a fresh new voice. PRAISE FOR LUSTER 'Remarkable, the most delicious novel I've read.' Candice Carty-Williams, bestselling author of Queenie 'Raven Leilani is a writer of unusual daring, with a voice that is unique and fully formed. There is humor, intelligence, emotion, and power in her work. I cannot think of a writer better suited to capture our contemporary moment.' Katie Kitamura, author of A Separation 'Among the most exciting releases of 2020-a lively, unforgettable coming-of-age story . . . Leilani brings painterly precision to each stunning sentence, making for an exacting, darkly comic story of a gifted yet wayward young woman learning to believe in her own talent.' Esquire 'Narrated with fresh and wry jadedness, Edie's every disappointment [is] rendered with a comic twist . . . Edie's life is a mess, her past is filled with sorrow, she's wasting her precious youth, and yet, reading about it all is a whole lot of fun.' Vogue 'Darkly funny with wicked insight . . . This keenly observed, dynamic debut is so cutting, it almost stings.' Elle

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9781529035995

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Reviews

Raven Leilani is a writer of unusual daring, with a voice that is unique and fully formed. There is humor, intelligence, emotion, and power in her work. I cannot think of a writer better suited to capture our contemporary moment. -- Katie Kitamura, author of <i>A Separation</i> A beguiling fever dream of a novel, shot through with wistfulness, humor, and a kind of breathless, furious verve. You'll find it impossible to put down. -- Ling Ma, author of <i>Severance</i> Hilarious, honest, bursting with desire and cutting insight, Luster is absolutely captivating. I didn't so much read it, as gulp it down. There's so much to learn here, so much to admire. Leilani is an irreverent, impeccable stylist-a voice we need right now. -- Justin Torres, author of <i>We the Animals</i> A taut, sharp, funny book about being young now. It's brutal-and brilliant. -- Zadie Smith, author of <i>Swing Time</i>

Author Information

Raven Leilani's work has been published in Granta, McSweeney's Quarterly Concern, Narrative, Columbia Journal, Conjunctions, The Cut, and New England Review, among other publications. She won Narrative's Ninth Annual Poetry Contest and the Matt Clark Editor's Choice Prize, as well as short fiction prizes from Bat City Review and Blue Earth Review. Leilani received her MFA from NYU and is currently the Axinn Foundation Writer in Residence there. Luster is her first novel.

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