BOOK OF THE WEEK

Luster by Raven Leilani, Picador, £14.99 (ebook £7.99).

Many books are touted as the biggest debut of the year, but it’s hard to always believe the hype.

However, it might just be true for Raven Leilani’s Luster.

Edie is a rudderless black woman in her 20s living in new york, feeling out of place in all-white workplaces and unable to do what she really wants: art.

She begins an affair with a middle-aged, married white man and somehow finds herself living in his new Jersey suburban house, showing his adopted black daughter how to do her hair and tiptoeing around his wife.

at times it’s darkly funny and devastatingly sad – particularly when Leilani drip feeds us details of Edie’s traumatic past.

Ultimately, the book is as evocative and moving as the paintings Edie creates in private, hidden from the world she doesn’t feel welcome in.