Nightcrawling

Be one of the first to read Nightcrawling, the debut novel by Leila Mottley, which marks the stunning arrival of a voice unlike any we have heard before

Kiara and her brother, Marcus, are barely scraping by in a squalid 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, and to keep the nine-year-old neighbour, abandoned by his mother, safe and fed.

One night, what begins as a drunken misunderstanding with a stranger, turns into a job that horrified Kiara, but now she desperately needs: nightcrawling. And 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.

Full of edge, raw beauty, electrifying intensity, and piercing vulnerability, Nightcrawling is inspired by a true scandal underpinning the police department in Oakland, California, Leila Mottley’s hometown. Leila Mottley, the 2018 Oakland Youth Poet Laureate, finished writing Nightcrawling when she was just seventeen years old – the same age as her unforgettable narrator, Kiara.

‘What an extraordinary and powerful novel. The best debut I’ve read in decades!!!’
—Karen Ferris, Berkelouw/Harry Hartog

Nightcrawling by Leila Mottley

Out 7 June from Bloomsbury

READ: an extract from Nightcrawling here.

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