Felicia Berliner is the author of Shmutz: A Novel (Atria Books). It is her first novel. She grew up in Los Angeles and attended yeshiva high school. Shmutz tells the story of Raizl, who – like the other women in her Brooklyn Hasidic community – expects to find a husband through an arranged marriage. Unlike the other women, however, 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 she dives deeper into the world of porn at night, her daytime life begins to unravel. Between combative visits with her shrink to complicated arranged dates, Raizl must balance her growing understanding of her sexuality with the more conventional expectations of the family she loves. Shmutz explores what it means to be a fully realized sexual and spiritual being caught between traditional and modern worlds.