'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 : a novel about
the joys and entanglements of a fierce group of teenage mothers in a Florida beach town. When
Adela Woods tells her parents she's pregnant they immediately send her a thousand miles away
to stay with her grandmother in Padua Beach. The intention is that she will leave her baby in
'the forgotten Panhandle of Florida'. and resume her suburban life nine months later as though
nothing happened. But Adela's plans are soon washed away by the tide. First Adela meets Emory
a new mother determined to defy the expectations of everyone around her returning to high
school with her newborn baby strapped to her chest. Then she meets Simone ringleader of 'the
Girls ' a group of young mothers who create a village together in the back of her red
truck-dancing breastfeeding raising their children and themselves. The town thinks they've
lost their way. Really they are finding it. But as they look for love make and break
friendships navigate the miracle of motherhood and the paradox of girlhood Adela Emory and
Simone also find themselves on an inescapable collision course with one another. 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