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Content snapshot
Flag an inaccuracy →What's in this book, at a glance — five things readers want to know before they start.
Violence
Barely any
Minimal physical violence; some scenes of peril
Language
Some
Moderate language; Edie's interior voice is frank
Sexual Content
A lot
Explicit sexual content; the affair is depicted directly
Substance Use
Barely any
Social drinking; some drug use at parties
Emotional Intensity
A lot
Racial alienation, the cost of being seen by the wrong people, artistic identity under financial pressure
What this book is about
Edie is a young Black woman in New York working a deadening office job and trying to be a painter. She begins an affair with Eric, a white archivist in an open marriage, and ends up absorbed into the strangeness of his family, including his Black adopted daughter Akila. Raven Leilani's debut is sharp and uncomfortable — a novel about race, desire, visibility, and what it means to be a young Black woman artist in America without a safety net.
Notes for sensitive readers
Reader-flagged moments and themes that may affect your experience.
explicit sexual content
frank depiction of a racially charged affair
financial and emotional precarity
Reader Verification
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