Booklist Reviews
*Starred Review* The first time she meets him IRL, artist/publishing professional Edie and her new paramour, Eric, spend a sweaty day at an amusement park. After the first two rides, I am enjoying myself, and not just because dying means I won't have to pay my student loans. Their intense online connection, both sexual and emotional, was no ruse. They abide by the rules of Eric's open marriage, until Eric's silence impels Edie from Brooklyn to his cushy New Jersey home and the lukewarm reception of his wife, Rebecca. Somewhat uncomfortably attending the couple's anniversary party that night, Edie meets their adopted daughter, Akila, who's surprised to see another Black person there. As the summer wears on, Edie loses her job and her apartment, and moves in with the family, finding something approaching camaraderie with Rebecca, and becoming a companion for Akila. Leilani's radiant debut belongs to its brilliant, fully formed narrator. Old soul Edie has an otherworldly way of seeing the world and reflecting it back to readers, peppering experiences of past and current despair with acceptance and humor but never sacrificing depth, of which her story has miles. A must for seekers of strongly narrated, original fiction. Copyright 2020 Booklist Reviews.
BookPage Reviews
8 major debuts of the summer
Summer 2020 has been a season of big shifts, including in the world of fiction. We're delighted to give a warm welcome to these new voices and their debut novels.
Cherie Dimaline, author of Empire of Wild
The author: Writer and activist Cherie Dimaline is a member of the Georgian Bay Métis Community in Ontario. She has published five books in Canada and makes her U.S. adult debut with Empire of Wild.
The book: Drawing inspiration from legends of the werewolf-like rougarou, Dimaline's powerful and inventive novel follows a woman who is searching for the truth behind her husband's mysterious disappearance and even more suspicious return.
For fans of: Literary thrillers that draw from the author's cultural heritage, such as LaRose by Louise Erdrich.
Read it for: Indigenous empowerment and a flawless mixture of supernatural events and realistic characters.
Raven Leilani, author of Luster
The author: A former student of Zadie Smith (who hyped Luster earlier this year in Harper's Bazaar), Raven Leilani has won multiple prizes for her fiction and poetry and is the Axinn Foundation Writer-in-Residence at NYU.
The book: This gritty novel explores many appetites—for sex, companionship, attention and money—and what happens when those lusts are sated.
For fans of: Spike Lee's 2017 reboot of She's Gotta Have It and heavy-hitting millennial writers like Ling Ma and Catherine Lacey.
Read it for: Leilani's cerebral, raw writing and keen social observations—especially about the truths that some people don't want to see.
Rónán Hession, author of Leonard and Hungry Paul
The author: Dublin-based author Rónán Hession is a social worker and songwriter who has released three lyrical acoustic albums as Mumblin' Deaf Ro.
The book: Hession explores the ordinary lives of two everyday guys in their 30s. Leonard's mom has just died, and he's working through his grief and loneliness. Hungry Paul lives at home with his parents and is occasionally accosted with motivational speeches by his older sister. These two lifelong friends go to work (or not, as the case may be), meet new people, try new things—the stuff of everyday life.
For fans of: Stories of lives well lived from Maeve Binchy and Mark Haddon.
Read it for: The reminder that we're all just doing our best. Simple and straightforward stories often get overlooked in our noisy world, but not by Hession.
Alex Landragin, author of Crossings
The author: French Armenian Australian writer Alex Landragin is a former author of Lonely Planet travel guides.
The book: Crossings is composed of three imaginative tales: a ghost story written by Charles Baudelaire, a German Jewish exile's dark love story on the precipice of the Nazi invasion of Paris and a memoir by a woman who lives through seven generations. The reader can read each story individually or follow the "Baroness" style, following directions to leap between the three tales.
For fans of: Books that play with storytelling structure, like Kate Atkinson's Life After Life or Mark Z. Danielewski's House of Leaves.
Read it for: The totally unexpected reading experience, which is as incredibly fun as it is nuanced and engaging.
Charlotte McConaghy, author of Migrations
The author: Charlotte McConaghy has published eight books in her native Australia and has worked in script development for film and TV for several years.
The book: Set in a near-future world that's facing the mass extinction of animals, McConaghy's U.S. debut follows a young woman named Franny who, grappling with a lifelong inability to define the nature of home, joins a fishing crew to follow the last migration of Arctic terns.
For fans of: Emotionally resonant tales like Disappearing Earth by Julia Phillips and H Is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald.
Read it for: A message of hope when all feels hopeless.
Lysley Tenorio, author of The Son of Good Fortune
The author: Lysley Tenorio is a Filipino American professor at Saint Mary's College of California whose stories have been adapted for the stage in New York City and San Francisco.
The book: Excel, a young Filipino immigrant living in California, lives paycheck to paycheck with his mother, a former low-budget movie star who now scams men online. When Excel meets a girl named Sab, the two run away and find themselves at the whimsical desert community of Hello City.
For fans of: Unique perspectives of the immigrant experience, such as The Leavers by Lisa Ko.
Read it for: A powerful examination of the bond between mother, son and motherland.
Sanaë Lemoine, author of The Margot Affair
The author: Born in Paris to a Japanese mother and French father, Sanaë Lemoine was raised in France and Australia. She now lives in New York, where she has worked as a recipe writer and cookbook editor.
The book: Margot Louve is the product of a long affair between a married public figure and a well-known actress. In her final year of high school, Margot decides that she is ready to expose the lie and go public with her story—anonymously.
For fans of: Stories of young women searching for truth, such as Saltwater by Jessica Andrews and Actress by Anne Enright.
Read it for: A realistic Parisian atmosphere and complicated, nuanced female characters.
Odie Lindsey, author of Some Go Home
The author: Combat veteran Odie Lindsey is the Writer-in-Residence at Vanderbilt University's Center for Medicine, Health, and Society.
The book: Inspired by the author's work as an editor of the Mississippi Encyclopedia, Some Go Home is set in the fictional town of Pitchlynn, Mississippi, where white residents are forced to face buried truths during a retrial for the violent, decades-old murder of a Black man.
For fans of: The Bitter Southerner and Southern novels that wrestle with the region's complicated, brutal history.
Read it for: Reflections on how the sins of our ancestors replay in our own lives.
Cherie Dimaline photo by Wenzdae Brewster. Raven Leilani photo by Evan Davis. Rónán Hession photo by Barry Delany. Alex Landragin photo by Helga Salwe. Charlotte McConaghy photo by Emma Daniels. Lysley Tenorio photo by Laura Bianchi. Sanaë Lemoine photo by Gieves Anderson. Odie Lindsey photo by Dana DeLoca.
Copyright 2020 BookPage Reviews.Kirkus Reviews
After losing her day job, a troubled young artist finds herself living with her much-older lover, his inscrutable wife, and their adopted daughter in Leilani's electric debut. Edie meets Eric online: She's a 23-year-old black art school dropout with a mouse-infested apartment in Bushwick and an ill-fitting administrative job at a children's publishing imprint; he's a white archivist in an open marriage and twice her age. "The age discrepancy doesn't bother me," she explains, keenly aware of the dynamics of these types of exchanges, his stability and experience for the redemptive power of her youth. Of course, she has been curious about the wife, but it's only after Eric goes silent that she wanders into his unlocked house and comes face to face with Rebecca, who knows who she is and cooly invites her to stay for dinner. Afterward, Rebecca leaves her a voicemail: "I enjoyed meeting you, let's do that again." And so it begins. Newly fired from the publishing house for being "sexually inappropriate," Edie is working for a delivery app when she gets an order for lobster bisque and a bone saw delivered to a VA hospital. The customer is Rebecca. The bone saw is because she's a medical examiner. The reason Rebecca then takes Edie home with her...can't be reduced into straightforward facts. Edie's role in their household is perpetually tenuous and always unspoken: It is clear to her that has been brought in, in part, "on the absurd presumption" she'd know what to do with their traumatized daughter, Akila, "simply because we are both black." So she bonds with Akila. Sometimes, she cleans. She is neither Rebecca's friend nor her rival. Regular envelopes with money appear on her dresser in irregular amounts, a cross between an allowance and a paycheck. And all the while, the dynamics among the four of them keep shifting, an unstable ballet of race, sex, and power. Leilani's characters act in ways that often defy explanation, and that is part of what makes them so alive and so mesmerizing: Whose behavior, in real life, can be reduced to simple cause and effect? Sharp, strange, propellant—and a whole lot of fun. Copyright Kirkus 2020 Kirkus/BPI Communications. All rights reserved.
Publishers Weekly Reviews
Leilani debuts with a moving examination of a young black woman's economic desperation and her relationship to violence. Edie is a 20-something low-level employee at a New York city publishing house. She paints on the side, but not often or well enough to comfortably call herself an artist, and she's infatuated with Eric Walker, a married white man twice her age she met online, with whom she explores his thirst for aggressive domination ("I think I'd like to hit you," he says; she lets him) and is caught breaking the rules of Eric's open marriage (no going to his house). After Edie loses her job, Eric's wife, Rebecca, invites her to stay with them in New Jersey. The arrangement functions partly to vex Eric and partly to support Akila, the Walkers' adopted black daughter. An inevitable betrayal cracks the household's veneer of civility, and suddenly Edie must make new arrangements. She does so in earnest, but not before a horrific scene in which Edie and Akila are victims of police brutality. Edie's ability to navigate the complicated relationships with the Walkers exhibits Leilani's mastery of nuance, and the narration is perceptive, funny, and emotionally charged. Edie's frank, self-possessed voice will keep a firm grip on readers all the way to the bitter end.