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 brutal-and brilliant.' - Zadie Smith, author of White Teeth
'A book of pure fineness, exceptional.' - 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. 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 head-first into Eric's 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 Obama's 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.' - Mail on Sunday



![Matthew, Perry BARGAIN FILM Matthew Perry: Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing: 'A candid, darkly funny book' New York Times [2022] paperback](http://chaptersbookstore.com/cdn/shop/files/matthew-perry-matthew-perry-friends-lovers-and-the-big-terrible-thing-a-candid-darkly-funny-book-new-york-times-2022-paperback-58541711753555_{width}x.jpg?v=1726942813)
![Manchan, Magan IRISH INTEREST Magan Manchan: Listen to the Land Speak [2022] hardback](http://chaptersbookstore.com/cdn/shop/files/manchan-magan-magan-manchan-listen-to-the-land-speak-2022-hardback-57197364117843_{width}x.jpg?v=1743077146)
![Yarros, Rebecca BARGAIN BOOKTOK Rebecca Yarros: Iron Flame [2023] paperback](http://chaptersbookstore.com/cdn/shop/files/yarros-rebecca-rebecca-yarros-iron-flame-2023-paperback-57259954602323_{width}x.jpg?v=1726753088)
![Keegan, Claire IRISH FICTION Claire Keegan: Small Things Like These: Shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2022 [2022] paperback](http://chaptersbookstore.com/cdn/shop/files/keegan-claire-claire-keegan-small-things-like-these-shortlisted-for-the-booker-prize-2022-2022-paperback-59373419102547_{width}x.jpg?v=1758902529)
![Fallon, Donal & Flanagan, Frank BARGAIN DUBLIN INTEREST James Flanagan: The Lamplighters of the Phoenix Park [2023] hardback](http://chaptersbookstore.com/cdn/shop/files/fallon-donal-flanagan-frank-james-flanagan-the-lamplighters-of-the-phoenix-park-2023-hardback-58346832265555_{width}x.jpg?v=1727218215)