Material

From the bestselling author of Luster, a powerful new novel about a group of artists caught up in a scandal, and the ways in which vengeance, rage, complicity, and doubt affect the material of their lives.

Over the course of one summer, eight women reckon with the fallout from a world-shifting exposé. Some of them were interviewed for the piece; some were not; only one was named. All of them are forced to deal with the repercussions of the scandal behind it—the abuses of power, as reported by numerous women, by a sculptor named Eli who, for good or for ill, shaped each of their lives. Hannah, Nadine, Maya, Carrie, Odette, Ruth, Zuzanna, Claudia. Each has a different medium. Each has her turn on the page.

Filled with doubt, art, rage, and imperfection, Material wrestles with the kinds of big and nuanced questions that kept readers of Raven Leilani’s debut, Luster, talking about it to everyone they met. What does it mean to have power? Where do we draw the line between persuasion, collaboration, and complicity? What would we do to take back control? And how does the material of one's life become art? Written with her characteristic energy and style, this is a short, charged novel, explosive in its insights and long-lasting in its impact.