Nightcrawling –A gritty, tender debut showcases a voice untethered from convention

To open her novel that deals with the fallacy of the American dream, Leila Mottley chooses the image of a filthy swimming pool. It’s downstairs in Kiara Johnson’s apartment block, where eviction notices are pasted on doors. The only child of a crack addict roams the pool perimeter, determined to get his ball back from it. Nobody swims there because nobody comes to clean it. Instead it festers under the hot California sun in a ...