“Exposure is a must-read. In a time when so many cultural conversations turn black and white, this brilliant book provides a way to truly see two sides of a story. Ava Dellaira delivers a novel so gripping and breathtaking, you’ll be compelled to continue discussing it long after you’ve finished.”

Stephen Chbosky

“This searingly brilliant novel defies all expectations: it is a bildungsroman, a meditation on friendship and artistic ambition, and an unflinching confrontation with the unreliability of memory and of truth. Dellaira has done the impossible; she has captured . . . immense compassion and uncompromising verve and vaulted herself in the process into the top ranks of our literary culture.”

Junot Díaz

“Haunting and immersive, Exposure is a powerful narrative tackling the complexities of race, love, loneliness, and friendship. I will be thinking about this book for a long time.”

Sally Hepworth

"Exposure pulses with electricity and grips you from page one. Dellaira perfectly captures how a singular moment in time can reverberate and change lives forever. In a thoughtful exploration of race and the pursuit of ambition, this exquisite novel illustrates how messy and elusive truth can be, blurring the lines between bad and good."

Nancy Johnson

“Ava Dellaira is a courageous and deeply empathetic author, writing with abundant control about the issues with the highest stakes: hopes, dreams, and ambition; the open wounds of grief and injustice. This novel is full of surprises, with comfort unearthed in the most unexpected places, and it explores the ways that the most unimaginable heartbreaks can metamorphose into sources of connection. As a character notes, resigned but far-sighted, considering these tender mutations: love always has the final say.”

Sarah Blakley-Cartwright

“Ava Dellaira’s Exposure is a compelling story of ambition, becoming, grief, and desire. Mysterious, haunting, and seductive."

Sanjena Sathian

“Exposure gracefully probes the ways the past can reach into the present and test everything we thought we knew about ourselves and those we hold close. Ava Dellaira has given us an empathetic exploration of creative ambition, grief, race, friendship, and ultimately, the strength and elasticity of love in all of its many forms. A captivating and beautifully crafted story.”

Caitlin Mullen

"At turns tender and blistering, Exposure is a gripping story about youth, race, ambition, friendship and love, cut through with the sharp knife of grief. A story of artists in the making as well as the slippery nature of truth and memory, Exposure reveals 'how more than one thing can be true in the same breath.' Masterful.”

Daisy Alpert Florin

"In Exposure, Dellaira explores challenging topics with a deft and unflinching gaze. The writing is sensuous, the settings sing, and the characters are complex and devastatingly real. Exposure examines grief, love, creativity, and truth, exploring the nuances and paradoxes that exist in each. A timely and profound novel.”

Katie Bishop