Nightcrawling

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Nightcrawling
288 pages; Knopf
When Oprah first encountered Nightcrawling, 19-year-old poet Leila Mottley's debut novel, she quickly opted to name it her 96th OBC pick. She was struck by the author's power to convey, in vivid and precise language, trauma, love and everything in between: "It always brings me joy to help introduce new writers to the reading community, and this young poet wowed me with her ode and elegy to Oakland, and her acute and insightful depictions of youth, injustice, the legacy of incarceration, and the resilience of community and chosen family."