The shortlist for the Indie Book Awards 2022, the annual awards curated exclusively by independent bookshops as part of Independent Bookshop Week, has been revealed.
LUSTER
by Raven Leilani (Picador £14.99, 240 pp)
This debut was a big deal in America last year and hits the UK riding a tsunami of praise.
Edie is 23, living in a mouse-ridden flat, floundering in her job in publishing and with a history of ill-judged sexual relationships, when she starts an online flirtation with Eric, an older, married, white man.
Before long, Edie has moved in with Eric, his wife Rebecca and their adopted 12-year-old black daughter, Akila.
Edie sleeps with Eric, has a strangely intimate friendship with Rebecca, strikes up a tentative relationship with Akila and decides she’s happy to take the cash that keeps appearing mysteriously in her room, despite the nature of the transaction being far from clear.