First Novelists 2004: Summer Highs, Fall Firsts

What do John Updike, John Grisham, Danielle Steel, and Joyce Carol Oates have in common? They all had to start somewhere: with a first novel. To track the next Updikes and Steels, each season LJpresents both a list of forthcoming first novels and a retrospective of the preceding season's most successful debuts. This year's retrospectives are as varied as ever, ranging from Plum Sykes's sassy Bergdorf Blondesto Seth Kantner's Ordinary Wolves, an extraordinary evocation of Alaska. In addition, we've enhanced the list of forthcoming titles by quoting from those LJ reviews already available.

Bernstein, Michael Andre. Conspirators. Farrar. ISBN 0-374-91914-3. $25. Bernstein's conspirators shook up the Austro-Hungarian Empire, but "this multileveled literary thriller [has] implications that reverberate into today's headlines" (LJ12/03). With "wonderful appreciations everywhere but the author's hometown paper," observes the publicist tartly.

Bojanowski, Marc. The Dog Fighter. Morrow. ISBN 0-06-059560-4. $23.95. The story may be brutal—a down-and-outer in 1940s Mexico tangles with local criminals while fighting dogs for a living—but the reviews were spectacular. What young novelist wouldn't want the New York Times drawing comparisons with Hemingway? A Book Sense 76 pick. (LJ 4/15/04)

Caldwell, Ian & Dustin Thomason. The Rule of Four. Dial. ISBN 0-385-33711-6. $24. At press time, this intellectual thriller boasted 15 weeks on the New York Times best sellers list and 913,000 copies in print after 23 printings—numbers that add up to this season's biggest fiction debut. And check out LJ's new best sellers list, where The Rule of Four has ruled since July.

Callanan, Liam. The Cloud Atlas. Delacorte. ISBN 0-385-33694-2. $22.95. It's not every novel that "mixes ethereal and haunting native folklore with vivid bomb-defusing scenes," as our reviewer observed, but the critics all agreed with her that this chronicle of World War II Alaska is "remarkable." (LJ3/1/04)

Chaon, Dan. You Remind Me of Me. Ballantine. ISBN 0-345-44141-9. $24.95. The big question: Would Chaon follow up his National Book Award–nominated story collection, Among the Missing, with a successful first novel? The book is in, and here's the answer: it's "masterly" (LJ5/1/04); it's "remarkable" (Washington Post Book World); it's "extraordinary" (Houston Chronicle). Need we say more? A Book Sense 76 pick.

Day, Cathy. The Circus in Winter. Harcourt. ISBN 0-15-101048-X. $23. People gave four stars to this three-ring circus of a debut, a novel-in-stories that draws on Day's childhood in Peru, IN, where trapeze artists and lion tamers have traditionally set up their tents for winter. Also an "Editor's Choice" in Entertainment Weekly. (LJ5/1/04)

Hagen, George. The Laments. Random. ISBN 1-4000-6221-7. $24.95. Offering "significant understanding of contemporary family relationships"(LJ 5/1/04), this tale of the peripatetic Laments was a Book Sense 76 and a Discover Great New Writers pick.

Hallowell, Janis. The Annunciation of Francesca Dunn. Morrow. ISBN 0-06-055919-5. $23.95. Booksellers made it a Book Sense 76 pick, and Peoplemade it a "Critics Choice." Who wouldn't be charmed by the tale of a teenaged girl who finds herself proclaimed the Virgin Mary? (LJ2/1/04)

Harwood, John. The Ghost Writer. Harcourt. ISBN 0-15-101074-9. $25. "During a season when Harcourt published six first novels, from the very start The Ghostwriterstood out," confided the publicist. "A Victorian ghost story [that's] smart, stylish and mesmerizing" (Washington Post Book World), this debut has already sold 26,000 copies—and it's just out of the gate. (LJ 7/04)

Kantner, Seth. Ordinary Wolves. Milkweed. ISBN 1-57131-044-4. $22. Here's a real success story. Spring after spring, the publisher received a revised version of this novel from Kantner, who for much of the year lives in Alaska above the Arctic Circle (his wife is a librarian in Kotzebue). When the novel was finally accepted, it provoked an avalanche: the publisher's largest initial printing (15,000 copies), swiftly followed by a second printing; rave reviews ("a magnificently realized story," New York Times); and not one but two author tours, including events at the Denver Public Library and in New York. (LJ3/15/04)

Kerley, Jack. The Hundredth Man. Dutton. ISBN 0-525-94821-X. $23.95. A "pitch-perfect psychological thriller" featuring a homicide detective who must rely on his psychopathic criminal of a brother to help solve a crime, this work was a Book Sense 76 Pick and made several local best sellers lists. (LJ 4/15/04)

Langer, Adam. Crossing California. Riverhead: Putnam. ISBN 1-57322-274-7. $24.95. This tale of two neighborhoods in 1979 Chicago got a four-star rating in People, a vote of confidence from both book sellers (it was a Book Sense 76 pick) and audiences (it won Elle's July reader's prize), and extravagant praise from the Chicago Tribune: "the most ambitious debut since…Philip Roth's Letting Go." (LJ 4/15/04)

Lee, Don. Country of Origin. Norton. ISBN 0-393-05812-3. $24.95. Ploughshareseditor Lee follows up his short fiction with this full-scale work about an American woman missing in Japan. "What makes Lee's work so satisfying is that while the mystery is used as a frame to support issues of race, exploitation, and identity, the narrative as a whole doesn't collapse under the weight of this literary ambition." (LJ2/1/04).

Loh, Vyvyane. Breaking the Tongue. Norton. ISBN 0-393-05792-5. $24.95. It may not be breaking onto any best sellers lists (yet), but you have to sit up when you read the reviews. "An extraordinary first novel…the reader will be left breathless by the ending," observes LJ's reviewer of this wrenching tale, the chronicle of a young man in 1930s Singapore who resists his Chinese heritage. (LJ 2/1/04)

Marson, Bonnie. Sleeping with Schubert. Random. ISBN 1-4000-6041-9. $21.95. This charming bon-bon about a feckless young woman who finds herself possessed by the spirit of Schubert was a Book Sense 76 pick. "There are a lot of elements of the chick-lit genre…but Marson, a visual artist, also offers some more introspective queries into the upheaval of genius" (LJ3/15/04).

Napolitano, Ann. Within Arm's Reach. Shaye Areheart: Harmony: Crown. ISBN 1-4000-5188-6. $23. LJstarred this "stunning multigenerational story," which was also featured as required reading in the New York Post. (LJ4/15/04)

Rosenberg, Robert. This Is Not Civilization. Houghton. ISBN 0-618-38601-7. $24. Still building but blessed with excellent reviews ("Rosenberg makes you care about his characters…. His description of the aftermath of [Turkey's 1999 earthquake] is journalistic, humane and heart-wrenching," New York Times), this novel proves that there certainly is civilization—or at least civilized writing. A Book Sense 76 pick. (LJ4/1/04)

Seigel, Andrea. Like the Red Panda. Harvest: Harcourt. ISBN 0-15-603024-1. pap. $13. What do the Wall Street Journal, Library Journal, People, and TeenVoguehave in common? They all raved about this juicy and daring paperback original, which reads like a female version of Catcher in the Rye. The upshot? Admirable sales totaling 42,000 copies—so far. (LJ2/1/04)

Shiflett, Shawn. Hidden Place. Akashic. ISBN 1-888451-50-5. pap. $15.95." Moving, suspenseful, funny, thoughtful, and sad" (LJ 12/03): all powerful adjectives to describe this tale of murder in a Mexican resort town. Reviews were uniformly positive, and the author even managed to land on Chicago New City's list of top 50 Chicago writers. A film may be in the offing.

Smith, Ian. The Blackbird Papers. Doubleday. ISBN 0-385-51136-1. $24.95. A dead professor, and dead blackbirds, too. Are they connected? The tension here has pushed this book into three printings, with 65,000 copies currently available. The author has been drawing huge audiences on the road.

Sykes, Plum. Bergdorf Blondes. Miramax: Hyperion. ISBN 1-4013-5196-4. $23.95." It makes Sex in the City resemble a carefully constructed anarcho-feminst critique of capitalist society," muttered the New York Times reviewer, but this tale of voracious young blondes in the Big Apple did reside on that newspaper's best sellers list for 14 weeks. (LJ 3/15/04)

Taichert, Pari Noskin. The Clovis Incident. Univ. of New Mexico. ISBN 0-8263-3186-6. $14.95. A scholarly publisher with a mystery? And a Book Sense 76 pick at that? This tale of a laid-off PR director who must solve a murder in Clovis, NM, has made all the regional best sellers lists and after a first printing of 1000 copies has gone to three printings—"a small but significant victory for a university press," observes the publicist.

Talarigo, Jeff. The Pearl Diver. Nan A. Talese: Doubleday. ISBN 0-385-51051-9. $18.95. This story of life in a Japanese leper colony has proven to be a pearl; it is "written with a compassion and skill rarely displayed in a debut novel" (LJ 3/1/04). A Book Sense 76 pick.

Winston, Lolly. Good Grief. Warner. ISBN 0-446-53304-1. $18. Good grief! A wacky novel about a young widow? Winston seems to have pulled it off; her debut spent three weeks on the New York Timesbest sellers list and was the top Book Sense 76 pick for March/April. "Emotionally engaging, full of quirky characters with realistic problems, and capped with a satisfying conclusion, this first novel is a rare treat" (LJ3/15/04).