“Berliner finds the bridge between ecstatic and carnal.” — Raven Leilani. “Clever, subversive, juicy, and surprising... A stunner!” — Deesha Philyaw. In this witty, provocative, and unputdownable debut novel a young Hasidic woman on a quest to get married fears she will never find a groom because of her secret addiction to porn. Like the other women in her Brooklyn Hasidic community, Raizl expects to find a husband through an arranged marriage. Unlike the other women, Raizl has a secret. With a hidden computer to help her complete her college degree, she falls down the slippery slope of online pornography. As Raizl dives deeper into the world of porn at night, her daytime life begins to unravel...
Publisher: Atria Books (July 19, 2022) Pages: 272 pages ISBN-10: 1982177624 ISBN-13: 978-1982177621 ASIN: B09JPL3ZRH
Click on the image to read the book
Felicia Berliner is an MFA graduate from Columbia University and winner of the 2018 Breakwater Review fiction contest. Shmutz is her first novel.