The novel takes on the same vicious circle as the plot of the kind of harassment black people and sex workers deemed untouchable face in the pursuit of justice within the American police system.

One of the world’s most powerful women, ‘Nightcrawling’ is Leela Motley’s first novel to be included in ‘Oprah’s Book Club’ by famed TV presenter and producer Oprah Winfrey.

The novel takes readers into the world of 17-year-old Kiara Johnson living in Auckland, where the joys, hopes and fears of a young community in black society create a different world. In the criminal justice system designed to protect black people, how Kiara becomes a victim of sexual violence by the police, how her own family becomes a victim of this system, this is the plot of ‘Nightcrawling’.

The struggle for survival makes Kiara a child sex worker, but she still raises a destitute nine-year-old child in her neighborhood, abandoned by her mother.

Kiara stands firm throughout this struggle and refuses to succumb to the oppression of the system. And that’s the beauty of this ‘Nightcrawling’, which Leela composed in a different style.

In the author’s commentary, Leela Motley writes how a note found after a policeman’s suicide in Auckland exposed the growing sex abuse scandal within the police system and became the plot of her novel. It was Leela’s sensitive eyes, which saw and understood the unseen oppression, the pain of the black-black teenager behind the scenes of this scandal.

Leela was selected as Auckland’s Young Poet when she was 16 and had started writing ‘Nightcrawling’ before her 17th birthday.

She had almost finished scripting the novel by the time she passed high school. “Nightcrawling” may be her first published novel, but she has already written two novels when she was 14-15 years old.

Leela Motley has been influenced by her father as well as Nobel laureates Toni Morrison, Tony Cade Bambra, Jacqueline Woodson and Jessamyn Ward, and is currently working on her first collection of poetry.

Leela comes from a literary and creative family where her father is a well-known playwright. Leela has watched her father write since she opened her eyes and it has inspired her to pursue her artistic dream.

Before Leela, British novelist John McGregor was on Booker’s list as the youngest author in 2002. At that time, his debut novel “If No One Speaks of Remarkable Things” was on that list.

However, the title of youngest author to receive the Booker Prize goes to New Zealander Eleanor Catone, who won the £50,000 prize in 2013 for her novel The Luminaries.

This time, the names of the writers included in the Booker Prizes list were announced on July 26, 2022, and the competitive list will be unveiled on September 6. After that, the name of the Booker Prize winner will be announced on October 17 during the House Round in London.