Aauthor of five books, including The Moor's Account, which won the American Book Award and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, and The Other Americans, which was a national bestseller, won the Joyce Carol Oates Prize, and was a finalist for the National Book Award. She has been awarded fellowships from the British Council, the Fulbright Program, the Guggenheim Foundation, and the Radcliffe Institute at Harvard University. Her most recent novel is The Dream Hotel. She lives in Los Angeles.