Reading Group Center




Debut novelist Leila Mottley visits The Daily Show with Trevor Noah

ICYMI click here to watch Trevor Noah’s conversation with Leila Mottley — “the biggest rockstar in the world of books right now” — about the inspiration behind her debut novel Nightcrawling and why she feels strongly about writing on the rich, nuanced complexities of Black girlhood.

“I wanted to give teenage Black girls the validity and respect that our culture often does not give them,” said Leila. “There’s this long history of Black women and Black girls being put into the role of caretaker which implicitly makes it so that Black women can’t take care of ourselves. We don’t think about ourselves first.”

Nightcrawling — an Oprah’s Book Club Pick, Booker Prize nominee, and New York Times Best Seller — is inspired by the harrowing 2016 Oakland Police Department sex scandal. The novel follows Kiara, a young Black woman who walks the streets of Oakland and stumbles headlong into the failure of its justice system. You can find a Nightcrawling discussion guide for your next book club here.