Nightcrawling: Longlisted for the Booker Prize 2022 - the youngest ever Booker nominee – Mottley Leila (2023)

Longlisted for the Booker Prize 2022 as the youngest-ever Booker nominee and an instant New York Times bestseller, this unforgettable novel follows seventeen-year-old Kiara Johnson, who has no idea what it means to live a normal life. With her mother in a halfway house and her older brother focused on a recording studio, Kiara looks after herself and nine-year-old Trevor, whose mother often disappears for days. When their landlord threatens to raise the rent, Kiara walks the streets after dark to survive in a world that refuses to protect her. One night, two police officers offer her a gruesome deal in exchange for her freedom. If she testifies before a grand jury, she could help expose the corruption of a police department, but her honesty may leave her family vulnerable to retaliation and endanger everyone she loves. Set in Oakland, this powerful novel explores young people navigating the darkest corners of an adult world with agonising humanity and mesmerising intensity. It has been described by The Times as evoking The Wire’s portrait of Baltimore and praised by Oprah Winfrey, The Guardian and Ruth Ozeki, winner of the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2022.