Luster

Razor sharp. provocatively page-turning and surprisingly tender, Luster is a painfully funny coming-of-age story told by a fresh new voice.

WINNER OF THE KIRKUS PRIZE FOR FICTION 2020
LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2021

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.

'A taut, sharp, funny book about being young now. It's brutal — and brilliant.' — Zadie Smith

'Remarkable, the most delicious novel I've read.' Candice Carty-Williams, bestselling author of Queenie

'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