![]() Previous Dylan Thomas prize winners include Bryan Washington, Guy Gunaratne and Max Porter. Leilani, who was also longlisted for this year’s Women’s prize, was announced as winner in a virtual ceremony on Thursday night. ![]() Leilani is an astonishingly original new voice,” said Gokhale. This is an important, uncomfortable book, by turns funny and angry, and always compelling. Irresistibly unruly and strikingly beautiful, razor-sharp and slyly comic, sexually charged and utterly absorbing, Raven Leilani’s Luster is a portrait of a young woman trying to make sense of her lifeher hunger, her angerin a tumultuous era. The narrator Edie’s incisive eye for all registers of racist bias is unblinking and masterly. She described Luster – which was chosen by Barack Obama as one of his favourite books of last year – as “an accomplished and fearless novel that carries the ache, uncertainty and vulnerability as well as the harsh reality of being a young black woman in America. ![]() After many conversations and long deliberations, the jury unanimously decided on Luster,” said Gokhale. “It was a difficult decision as we had an exceptionally brilliant shortlist – all the books were potential winners. ![]() Leilani’s debut “stood out for the compelling narrative voice, and the unblinking quality of the writing,” said chair of judges Namita Gokhale, who, with her fellow judges, selected Luster from a shortlist which also featured Kate Elizabeth Russell’s My Dark Vanessa, and Akwaeke Emezi’s The Death of Vivek Oji. ![]()
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