![]() Raven Leilani is intellectually supple and steely at the same time she thinks and perceives blessedly outside any kind of norm. Above all they tell the truth, even when it hurts." -Angela Flournoy, author of The Turner House "The narrative voice of this startling novel is layered, complex, pitch-black comic, and deadly earnest, even ardent in its will to sift through the chaos and idiocy of our madhouse culture and find some glimpse of human reality. I couldn''t put this one down." -Brit Bennett, author of The Mothers "Raven Leilani''s sentences pulse and writhe and shimmer and gut-punch. Raven Leilani crafts a beautiful, bighearted story about intimacy and art that will astound and wound you. Luster follows the unforgettable Edie, a hapless young woman suffocating under her own loneliness, whose caustic observations made me laugh out loud and gasp in recognition. This keenly observed, dynamic debut is so cutting, it almost stings." -Lauren Puckett, Elle "A darkly funny, hilariously moving debut from a stunning new voice. ![]() I know it''s a cliché, but I really cannot recommend this book highly enough." -Tomi Obaro, Buzzfeed News "Darkly funny with wicked insight. Leilani''s brutally accurate observations and rapier wit make this novel a singular, mordant delight. 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." -Chloe Schama, Vogue "Sometimes, on very rare occasions, you read a debut novel with a narrative voice that is so assured, so confident, so astute, and so devastatingly funny, it leaves you reeling. A writer of exhilarating freedom and daring." -Zadie Smith, Harper''s Bazaar "Narrated with fresh and wry jadedness, Edie''s every disappointment rendered with a comic twist. Most Anticipated of 2020 at Buzzfeed and Electric Literature One of the Most Anticipated Books of Summer at Vogue, Elle, Harper''s Bazaar "Exacting, hilarious, and deadly. 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. 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. Edie may be the only Black woman young Akila knows. She becomes a hesitant ally to his wife and a de facto role model to his adopted daughter. 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. 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. She is also haltingly, fitfully giving heat and air to the art that simmers inside her. 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. ![]() 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. 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. 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, The Times (UK), Buzzfeed, Kirkus, Time, Good Housekeeping, InStyle, The Guardian, Literary Hub, Electric Literature, Self, The New York Public Library, Town & Country, Wired, , 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.
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