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Join Raven Leilani to discuss her debut novel Luster live on Zoom

The Vox February book pick is assured and cutting.

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Constance Grady is a senior correspondent on the Culture team for Vox, where since 2016 she has covered books, publishing, gender, celebrity analysis, and theater.

The Vox Book Club is linking to Bookshop.org to support local and independent booksellers.

As a bright spot in the midst of this strange February, the Vox Book Club is reading Raven Leilani’s assured and cutting debut novel, Luster, a psychosexual family drama about a young Black woman named Edie who moves in with her white boyfriend, his white wife, and their Black daughter.

Luster is one of those books that makes the world seem both clearer and more interesting than you thought it was. But what really makes it sing is Leilani’s ability to evoke with precise and damning detail the hypocrisy of the smugly virtuous white liberal landscape Edie is trying to navigate. There’s so much to unpack here, which is why I’m excited to announce that at the end of the month, we’ll be meeting live on Zoom with Leilani herself to talk the whole thing through — and you can join us!

Our event will be on Monday, February 22, at 5 pm ET. We’ll chat for about 45 minutes, and audience questions are encouraged. You can RSVP right here.

In the meantime, join in our discussion of Luster’s psychosexual structure, and subscribe to the Vox Book Club newsletter to make sure you don’t miss anything.

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