Leila Mottley

17-vuotias Kiara ja isoveli Marcus sinnittelevät kahdestaan Oaklandin huonomaineisen naapuruston ränsistyvässä vuokra-asuntokompleksissa. Isä on kuollut, äiti laitoksessa, ja vuokranantaja on juuri tuplannut heidän vuokransa. Vastuu molempien elättämisestä lankeaa Kiaran harteille, sillä rap-tähteydestä haaveilevasta Marcuksesta ei ole juuri apua. Kiaralla on vastuullaan myös naapurin 9-vuotias Trevor, josta tämän addiktiäiti ei kykene huolehtimaan. Etsiessään epätoivoisesti lisää töitä Kiara joutuu osaksi humalaista väärinymmärrystä. Tapahtumaketju saa hänet tarttumaan viimeiseen oljenkorteen: kuutamokeikkoihin prostituoituna. Hän joutuu myös tekemisiin poliisin kanssa ja löytää pian itsensä keskeltä valtavaa hyväksikäyttöskandaalia. Yökulkijat on raa'an kaunis kasvutarina ja musertava kertomus eriarvoisuudesta ja selviytymisestä. Kirjalliseksi sensaatioksi noussut romaani on saanut innoituksensa todellisesta Oaklandin poliisilaitosta ravistelleesta skandaalista.

Hämta bokcirkelfrågor till Nattvarelser här >> Kiaras liv ser inte ut som andra sjuttonåringars. Med en mamma på rehab och en storebror som drömmer om att bli rapstjärna är Kiara tvungen att ta hand om både sig själv och den övergivna nioåriga grannkillen Trevor. När hyran i deras slitna kvarter i Oakland plötsligt dubblas tar pengarna helt enkelt slut. Kiara ger sig ut på gatorna nattetid, fast besluten att överleva i en värld där ingen skyddar henne. Desperationen leder till handlingar hon aldrig trodde sig kunna utföra. När Kiaras namn plötsligt dyker upp i en utredning i samband med en skandal inom Oaklandpolisen blir Kiaras tillvaro farlig på riktigt. Vad kommer att hända med hennes sköra familj om hon går med på att vittna? Nattvarelser är en oförglömlig roman om unga människor som försöker ta sig fram i en mörk vuxenvärld. Det är brutalt, vackert och skrivet med djup medmänsklighet. Leila Mottley är en ny litterär stjärna, vars debut hyllats av både läsare och kritiker.

Kiara og broren Marcus bor alene i et slitent leilighetskompleks i East Oakland. Begge har droppet ut av videregående, og mens broren dagdrømmer om en rapkarriere, leter Kiara etter en jobb. Husleia er fordoblet, og i tillegg tar hun seg av den ni år gamle nabogutten. En kveld blir hun feilaktig tatt for å være prostituert, og snart er hun yndlingsjenta til en gruppe korrupte politimenn. Hun blir et nøkkelvitne i den største skandalen i Oakland-politiet noensinne, og begynner å øyne håp om en lysere framtid. Leila Mottley var bare atten år da hun skrev Nattvesener, og med den ble hun tidenes yngste nominerte til Bookerprisen. New York Times har utropt henne til et av årets største litterære talenter, og boka er plukket av Oprah's Book Club. Nattvesener er en stilsikker, vakker og gripende fortelling om et liv på ville veier. Om styrken og omsorgsevnen som kan bo i et ungt menneske med alle odds mot seg.

From the author of the Booker nominated, international bestseller Nightcrawling: a novel about the joys and entanglements of a fierce group of teenage mothers in a Florida beach town. When Adela Woods tells her parents she’s pregnant, they immediately send her a thousand miles away to stay with her grandmother in Padua Beach. The intention is that she will leave her baby in 'the forgotten Panhandle of Florida'. and resume her suburban life nine months later as though nothing happened. But Adela’s plans are soon washed away by the tide. First, Adela meets Emory, a new mother determined to defy the expectations of everyone around her, returning to high school with her newborn baby strapped to her chest. Then she meets Simone, ringleader of ‘the Girls,’ a group of young mothers who create a village together in the back of her red truck—dancing, breastfeeding, raising their children and themselves. The town thinks they’ve lost their way. Really, they are finding it. But as they look for love, make and break friendships, navigate the miracle of motherhood and the paradox of girlhood, Adela, Emory and Simone also find themselves on an inescapable collision course with one another. A novel full of heart and life and hope, set against the shifting sands of secrets and betrayals, The Girls Who Grew Big offers an explosive new perspective on what it means to be a young woman, a daughter, and a mother.'Opens up the world of young mothers in its makeshift, sticky, struggling glory ... Sensuous, gripping and utterly believable' EMMA DONOGHUE

From the author of Oprah's Book Club pick and New York Times bestseller Nightcrawling, here is an astonishing new novel about the joys and entanglements of a fierce group of teenage mothers in a small town on the Florida panhandle. Adela Woods is sixteen years old and pregnant. Her parents banish her from her comfortable upbringing in Indiana to her grandmother's home in the small town of Padua Beach, Florida. When she arrives, Adela meets Emory, who brings her newborn to high school, determined to graduate despite the odds; Simone, mother of four-year-old twins, who weighs her options when she finds herself pregnant again; and the rest of the Girls, a group of outcast young moms who raise their growing brood in the back of Simone's red truck. The town thinks the Girls have lost their way, but really they are finding it: looking for love, making and breaking friendships, and navigating the miracle of motherhood and the paradox of girlhood. Full of heart and life and hope, set against the shifting sands of these friends' secrets and betrayals, The Girls Who Grew Big confirms Leila Mottley's promise and offers an explosive new perspective on what it means to be a young woman.

A poignant, rousing debut book of poetry, full of life, from the former Youth Poet Laureate of Oakland, California woke up no light is a Black girl's saunter turned to a woman's defiant strut. These are the hymns of a new generation of poetry. Young, alive, yearning. A mouth swung open and ready to devour. A quest for home in a world that knows only wasteland and wanting. Moving in sections from "girlhood" to "neighborhood" to "falsehood" to, finally, "womanhood," these poems reckon with themes of reparations, restitution, and desire. The collection is sharp and raw, wise and rhythmic, a combination that lights up each page. From unearthing histories to searching for ways to dream of a future in a world constantly on the brink of disaster, this young poet sets forth personal and political revelation with piercing detail. woke up no light confirms Leila Mottley's arrival and demonstrates the enduring power of her voice--brave and distinctive and thoroughly her own.

LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2022 – THE YOUNGEST EVER BOOKER NOMINEE THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER ‘Mottley attempts to do for Oakland something of what The Wire did for Baltimore' THE TIMES 'A soul-searching portrait of survival and hope' OPRAH WINFREY We’ll laugh because we can, until the sun disintegrates and nighttime threatens to set us free just to capture us again, back into the things we can’t escape. Kiara does not know what it is to live as a normal seventeen-year-old. With her mother in a halfway house, she fends for herself – and for nine-year-old Trevor, whose own mother disappears for days at a time. But as the pressures of rent to pay and mouths to feed increase, Kiara finds herself walking the streets after dark, determined to survive in a world that refuses to protect her. Nightcrawling is an unforgettable novel about young people navigating the darkest corners of an adult world, told with a humanity that is at once agonising and utterly mesmerising. _______________ 'UNFORGETTABLE' GUARDIAN 'A MAGNIFICENT DEBUT' RUTH OZEKI, winner of the Women's Prize for Fiction 2022 _______________

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, GOODREADSKiara 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.

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, GOODREADSKiara 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.

LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2022 - THE YOUNGEST EVER BOOKER NOMINEETHE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER’MOTTLEY ATTEMPTS TO DO FOR OAKLAND SOMETHING OF WHAT THE WIRE DID FOR BALTIMORE’ THE TIMES’A SOUL-SEARCHING PORTRAIT OF SURVIVAL AND HOPE’ OPRAH WINFREYWhen there is no choice, all you have left to do is walk. Kiara Johnson does not know what it is to live as a normal seventeen-year-old. With her mother in a rehab facility and an older brother who devotes his time and money to a recording studio, she fends for herself - and for nine-year-old Trevor, whose own mother is prone to disappearing for days at a time. As the landlord of their apartment block threatens to raise their rent, Kiara finds herself walking the streets after dark, determined to survive in a world that refuses to protect her. Then one night Kiara is picked up by two police officers, and the gruesome deal she is offered in exchange for her freedom lands her at the centre of a media storm. If she agrees to testify in a grand jury trial, she could help expose the sickening corruption of a police department. But honesty comes at a price - one that could leave her family vulnerable to their retaliation, and endanger everyone she loves. Nightcrawling is an unforgettable novel about young people navigating the darkest corners of an adult world, told with a humanity that is at once agonising and utterly mesmerising. ’UNFORGETTABLE’ GUARDIAN’A MAGNIFICENT DEBUT’ RUTH OZEKI, winner of the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2022READERS CAN’T GET ENOUGH OF NIGHTCRAWLING’Nightcrawling is a lyrical masterpiece’ *****’This book ripped my heart out’ *****’Unputdownable. From the first page I was hooked’ *****’This is a heart-achingly necessary book which will carve a hole in your soul and stay with you forever’ ***** ’It is rare to read a first novel so perfectly crafted’ *****’This is an absolute must-read. Five stars out of five’ *****’Completely gripping . . . This is going to be a huge bestseller’ *****

OPRAH'S BOOK CLUB PICK A NEW YORK TIMES WRITER TO WATCH 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 and "a soul-searching portrait of survival and hope" (Oprah Winfrey)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 prisonBut 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.