Based on a true crime in 2015, Leila Mottley’s debut novel, Nightcrawling, gives voice to 17-year-old Kiara Johnson, who, after her father’s death and mother’s detention in a rehab facility, becomes a sex worker to pay for rent hikes. She also needs to look after her disillusioned older brother and a nine-year-old left behind by a neighbor. Mottley outlines the perilous economy of poverty in America in a dramatic account that gives tangible form to what millions of invisible people endure. BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The New Yorker, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, TIME, GOODREADS