Nightcrawling

NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER - AN OPRAH BOOK CLUB PICK - A dazzling novel about a young Black woman who walks the streets of Oakland and stumbles headlong into the failure of its justice system. This debut of a blazingly original voice "bursts at the seams of every page and swallows you whole" (Tommy Orange, author of There There).

A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The New Yorker, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, TIME, GOODREADS

Kiara and her brother, Marcus, are scraping by in an East Oakland apartment complex optimistically called the Regal-Hi. Both have dropped out of high school, their family fractured by death and prison

But while Marcus clings to his dream of rap stardom, Kiara hunts for work to pay their rent--which has more than doubled--and to keep the nine-year-old boy next door, abandoned by his mother, safe and fed. One night, what begins as a drunken misunderstanding with a stranger turns into the job Kiara never imagined wanting but now desperately needs: nightcrawling. Her world breaks open even further when her name surfaces in an investigation that exposes her as a key witness in a massive scandal within the Oakland Police Department.

Rich with raw beauty, electrifying intensity, and piercing vulnerability, Nightcrawling marks the stunning arrival of a voice unlike any we have heard before.

Author: Leila Mottley
Publisher: Knopf Publishing Group
Published: 06/07/2022
Pages: 288
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.25lbs
Size: 9.29h x 6.61w x 1.34d
ISBN: 9780593318935


Award: Man Booker Prize - Nominee


Review Citation(s):
Library Journal Prepub Alert 12/01/2021 pg. 9
Kirkus Reviews 03/15/2022
Booklist 04/01/2022 pg. 18
Publishers Weekly 04/18/2022
Library Journal 05/01/2022 pg. 84

About the Author

LEILA MOTTLEY is the author of the novel Nightcrawling, an Oprah's Book Club Pick and New York Times best seller. She is also the 2018 Oakland Youth Poet Laureate. She was born and raised in Oakland, where she continues to live.