The Girls Who Grew Big

'Written in big, beautiful prose that expands throughout the novel and leaves the reader full and satisfied ... Leila Mottley's grasp of human nature is unmatched' CANDICE CARTY-WILLIAMS - From the author of the Booker nominated, international bestseller Nightcrawling. Adela, Emory, and Simone - three young women bound by chance, motherhood, and defiance. When Adela Woods is sent to her grandmother's house in a forgotten Florida beach town to have her baby in secret, she expects to return home unchanged. Instead, she meets Emory, who is determined to finish school even if it means going to class with her newborn strapped to her chest. Then she meets Simone, the fearless ringleader of "the Girls," a tribe of young mothers raising themselves alongside their children. The town thinks they've lost their way. Really, they're finding it - through friendship, love, and heartbreak under the relentless Florida sun. But when shifting loyalties give way to betrayal, will the ties holding them together come apart? A novel full of heart and life and hope, set against the shifting sands of secrets and betrayals, The Girls Who Grew Big offers an explosive new perspective on what it means to be a young woman, a daughter, and a mother. 'Opens up the world of young mothers in its makeshift, sticky, struggling glory ... Sensuous, gripping and utterly believable' EMMA DONOGHUE

Leila Mottley's first novel, Nightcrawling, was a New York Times bestseller, an Oprah's Book Club pick, and its longlisting made Leila the youngest ever Booker Prize nominee. She is the author of the poetry collection woke up no light, and was the 2018 Oakland Youth Poet Laureate. She was born and raised in Oakland, California, where she continues to live.