Luster

Sharp,comicdisruptivetenderRaven Leilani’s debut novelLustersees a young black woman fall into art and someone else’s open marriage Edie is stumbling her way through her twentiesΓÇösharing a subpar apartment in Bushwickclocking in and out of her admin jobmaking a series of inappropriate sexual choices. She’s alsosecretlyhaltingly figuring her way into life as an artist. And then she meets Erica digital archivist with a family in New Jerseyincluding an autopsist wife who has agreed to an open marriageΓÇöwith rules. As if navigating the constantly shifting landscapes of contemporary sexual manners and racial politics weren’t hard enoughEdie finds herself unemployed and falling into Eric’s family lifehis home. She becomes hesitant friend to his wife and a de facto role model to his adopted daughter. Edie is the only black woman young Akila may know. Razor sharpdarkly comicsexually chargedsocially disruptiveLuster is a portrait of a young woman trying to make her sense of her life in a tumultuous era. It is also a hauntingaching description of how hard it is to believe in your own talent and the unexpected influences that bring us into ourselves along the way.