When Oprah Winfrey talks, people listen. And when she chooses books for her book club, people read them. The βOprah effectβ has helped authors like Tayari Jones and Colson Whitehead become household names and convinced people to go back and give some of the books they should have read in their high school English classes another chance. This time, the queen of talk has chosen Leila Mottleyβs novel βNightcrawlingβ as her latest book club pick. At 19-years-old, Motley is the youngest author to have her work featured as an Oprahβs Book Club pick.
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βIt brings me great joy to introduce readers to new authors, and this young poet Leila Mottley wrote a soul-searching portrait of survival and hope,β Winfrey said in a statement Tuesday.
βNightcrawlingβ is narrated by Kiara, a teenager who is struggling to get by in East Oakland, CA after she and her brother have dropped out of high school. Without family, she stumbles into nightcrawling to pay the bills. And things get even more complicated when she becomes a key witness in a major scandal within the Oakland Police Department. The book has been receiving praise from across the literary world since it hit bookstore shelves on June 7. Kiese Laymon, author of βHeavy,β wrote, βNightcrawling is a scorching, incredibly readable book that takes seriously the task of readerly provocation on every page. Get ready. Or donβt. It doesnβt matter. Leila Mottley is here.β
Mottley is a product of Oakland and was the cityβs youth poet laureate in 2018. Learning that her debut novel would be the next Oprahβs Book Club pick was βthe surprise of a lifetime!β she said.
Oprahβs Book Club launched in 1996 with Jacquelyn Mitchardβs βThe Deep End of the Ocean.β Since that time, she has featured classics like βSulaβ by Toni Morrison, βThe Sweetness of Water,β the debut novel by Nathan Harris, and βBecoming,β a memoir written by former First Lady Michelle Obama. Each book is hand-picked by Ms. Winfrey herself. βNightcrawlingβ is the 96th Book Club pick. Bookworms will get to learn more about Mottley and her book when she sits down with Oprah for an interactive book club event on OprahDaily.com on June 30.
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