A dazzling novel about a young black woman who walks the streets of Oakland and stumbles headlong into the failure of its justice system — the debut of a blazingly original voice that “bursts at the seams of every page and swallows you whole” (Tommy Orange, best-selling author of There There). 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 — which has more than doubled — and to keep the nine-year-old boy next door, abandoned by his mother, safe and fed...
Publisher: Knopf (June 7, 2022) Pages: 288 pages ISBN-10: 0593318935 ISBN-13: 978-0593318935 ASIN: B09DK8M4VL
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Leila Mottley is the 2018 Oakland Youth Poet Laureate. Her work has been featured in THE NEW YORK TIMES and OPRAH DAILY. She was born and raised in Oakland, where she continues to live. NIGHTCRAWLING is her first novel.