First Novelists Fall 2006: They've Got Style

By Barbara Hoffert with Ann Burns -- Library Journal, 10/01/2006

Each season, LJ offers a retrospective of the previous season’s top debut novels to alert librarians to writers who bear watching. A few of those featured here, like Marie Arana and Patrick McManus, are familiar. But the star in this firmament is Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright Wendy Wasserstein, whose debut novel was also her swan song. Though we can expect no more from Wasserstein, her presence on this list is a reminder of what every new author can aspire to be.

Arana, Marie. Cellophane. Dial: Random. ISBN 0-385-33664-0. $24.
Arana’s portrait of an engineer who conjures up cellophane deep in the Peruvian jungle was reputedly one of the most-reviewed books of the summer—no surprise, since Arana also wrote the affecting American Chica, a National Book Award finalist in nonfiction. “Sumptuous, often erotic, and wholly enchanting” (Los Angeles Times Book Review); a Borders Original Voices pick. (LJ 6/15/06)

Binelli, Mark. Sacco and Vanzetti Must Die! Dalkey Archive. ISBN 1-56478-445-2. pap. $14.95.
Charmed reviewers everywhere, from the Los Angeles Times to Entertainment Weekly to Timeout New York. A forthcoming excerpt in Harper’s. Pride of place as a BookSense pick in August. No wonder this wacky reinvention of the famed anarchists as a comedy duo has been selling so briskly. (LJ 6/1/06)

Britton, Andrew. The American. Kensington. ISBN 0-7582-1333-6. $24.
Kensington seems to have made a smart move when it outbid some big boys to get this work. Blessed with “considerable writing talent…[Britton] has produced a thriller that makes current terrorist threats all too real” (LJ 2/15/06). The 24-year-old is being positioned as a chills-and-thrills author for the next generation.

Brown, Peter C. The Fugitive Wife. Norton. ISBN 0-393-06110-8. $24.95.
Brown’s tale of a woman who remakes herself in early 1900s Alaska started with such a bang that the initial tour suddenly leapt from three cities to ten. It helped when the New York Times proclaimed this debut “enormously satisfying” and made it an Editor’s Choice. (LJ web exclusive)

Byrd, Lee Merrill. Riley’s Fire. Algonquin. ISBN 1-56512-497-9. $19.95.
Little Riley has been badly seared by flames he started accidentally—as Byrd’s two sons were in a playhouse fire decades ago—but his story is less searing than profoundly transformative. A four-star “Critics’ Choice” review in People helped move this tale along to a second printing. (LJ 2/1/06)

Chase, Clifford. Winkie. Grove. ISBN 0-8021-1830-5. $16.95.
A teddy bear who finds himself drug into the War on Terror? “In this most unusual debut novel, which was inspired by the author’s childhood teddy bear, Winkie lives!” (LJ 7/06). A Borders Original Voices pick.

Conrad, Christine. Mademoiselle Benoir. Houghton. ISBN 0-618-57479-4. $20.
Boosted by NPR’s Susan Stamberg, who called it “Peter Mayle meets Gail Sheehy,” this tale of a young American’s infatuation with an aristocratic Frenchwoman of a certain age was also a BookSense pick. “Catherine Deneuve would be a perfect Catherine; and for Tim, who else but Ashton Kutcher?” opined the New York Times Book Review. (LJ 11/15/05)

Cook, Troy. 47 Rules of Highly Effective Bank Robbers. Capital Crime. ISBN 0-9776276-6-7. pap. $14.95.
The first highly effective rule of publishing: launch your press, as Capital Crimes did this summer, with a debut that manages to sell thousands of copies within a month of publication. Glowing reviews were plentiful, and LJ’s blog called this mystery “a literary jewel.”

Dean, Debra. The Madonnas of Leningrad. Morrow. ISBN 0-06-082530-8. $23.95.
After dozens of rave reviews from venues as wide-ranging as People (“Dean writes with passion and compelling drama about a grotesque chapter of World War II”) and Virginia Quarterly Review (“A moving and beautiful tribute to the human spirit”), Dean topped off her success by copping a Quills nominee for debut author of the year. (LJ 2/15/06)

de los Santos, Marisa. Love Walked In. Dutton. ISBN 0-525-94917-8. $23.95.
For an award-winning poet who’s decided to switch to chick lit, what’s even better than having your fiction debut declared a BookSense pick and one of Marie Claire’s “Ten Best” in February? Having Paramount buy the film rights and getting Sarah Jessica Parker to star, of course. (LJ 9/15/05)

Donohue, Keith. The Stolen Child. Nan A. Talese: Doubleday. ISBN 0-385-51616-9. $23.95.
Launched in April, this fable about fairy changelings was lucky enough to reach the New York Times extended best sellers list in June. But the really good news came in August with Donohue’s appearance on Amazon’s Fishbowl with Bill Maher. Amazon announced that it would start making films and declared this debut its first project. Now best sellers lists nationwide are taking notice. (LJ 2/15/06)

D’Souza, Tony. Whiteman. Harcourt. ISBN 0-15-101145-1. $22.
D’Souza’s experiences in Africa as a Peace Corps AIDS educator startled him into writing fiction, with considerable success. This novel was excerpted in both The New Yorker and Playboy, was dubbed an Editor’s Choice by the New York Times, won a four-star “Critics’ Choice” review in People, and went into a second printing. Look for a chapter in Prize Stories: The O. Henry Awards. (LJ 2/1/06)

Dugoni, Robert. The Jury Master. Warner. ISBN 0-446-57869-X. $24.95.
LJ’s reviewer predicted that this legal thriller “should easily find its way onto the best sellers lists,” and it did, residing on the New York Times’s extended list for three weeks. (LJ 2/1/06)

Fugard, Lisa. Skinner’s Drift. Scribner. ISBN 0-7432-7299-4. $25.
So talent can be inherited: The daughter of South African playwright Athol Fugard triumphs with a work that explores the desecration wrought by apartheid. Observes the New York Times: “Fugard succeeds brilliantly in conveying her great themes through smaller details and quieter scenes.” A BookSense and Borders Original Voices pick. (LJ 11/15/06)

Greenway, Alice. White Ghost Girls. Black Cat: Grove. ISBN 0-8021-7018-8. pap. $13.
Don’t overlook this little trade paperback original. The story of teenaged sisters in 1960s Hong Kong whose father is off photographing the Vietnam War, it’s a “compelling, heartbreaking, and original first novel” (LJ 11/15/05) that became both a Discover Great New Writers and a BookSense pick.

Grushin, Olga. The Dream Life of Sukhanov. Putnam. ISBN 0-399-15298-9. 24.95.
The Washington Post’s Jonathan Yardley called this debut “the work of a true artist,” and he’s right: Grushin could not have rendered this tale of a Soviet art critic’s disillusionment more affectingly. Further evidence for the book’s stature: it was a finalist for the Los Angeles Book Prize’s Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction and was shortlisted for the Orange Prize for first fiction. (LJ 10/15/05)

Hobbs, Peter. The Short Day Dying. Harvest: Harcourt. ISBN 0-15-603241-4. pap. $14.
Young lay minister Charles Wenmouth traverses 19th-century rural England, picking up Discover Great New Writers and Borders Original Voices citations along the way.

Guène, Faïza. Kiffe Kiffe Tomorrow. Harvest: Harcourt. ISBN 0-15-603048-9. pap. $13.
Just out of the gate, this debut by a French university student whose parents are Algerian immigrants has already won loads of raves (a “slim but inspired first novel,” the New York Times Book Review), not to mention an A- from Entertainment Weekly and a Borders Original Voices nod. (LJ 4/15/06)

Gutfreund, Amir. Our Holocaust. Toby. ISBN 1-59264-139-3. $24.95.
Only one book in translation surfaced this spring on the Discover Great New Writers list: Gutfreund’s tale of Israeli children coping with relatives undone by the Holocaust. “Humanity wins out in this highly recommended book” (LJ 1/06).

Hockensmith, Steve. Holmes on the Range. Minotaur: St. Martin’s. ISBN 0-312-34780-4. $22.95.
Hunting for a debut mystery writer with a Western twang? Try Hockensmith, whose tale of two cowboys playing Holmes and Watson will keep you “grinning from the first page to the last” (LJ 11/1/05). A BookSense pick.

Janko, James. Buffalo Boy and Geronimo. Curbstone, dist. by Consortium. ISBN 1-931896-19-4. pap. $15.
An Editor’s Pick on LJ’s web site last January, Janko’s affecting Vietnam story “deserves to be entered into the canon of masterful, penetrating works of this still controversial era” (LJ 12/05). Numerous readings swelled demand, pushing into a second printing.

Khoury, Raymond. The Last Templar. Dutton. ISBN 0-525-94941-0. $24.95.
If you want proof that this tale of intrigue dating back to the 1291 fall of Jerusalem was a big success, look no further than the New York Times best sellers list, where it dwelt for three months. It made a dozen other best sellers lists as well, and lucky Khoury ended the summer as a Quills nominee for debut author of the year. (LJ 1/06)

Lindbergh, Judith. The Thrall’s Tale. Viking. ISBN 0-670-03464-9. $25.95.
“Thoroughly researched and beautifully executed” (LJ 11/15/05), this tale of survival in rugged 900s Greenland was both a BookSense and a Borders Original Voices pick.

McManus, Patrick F. The Blight Way: A Sheriff Bo Tully Mystery. S. & S. ISBN 0-7432-8047-4. $24.
Was beloved outdoor columnist Mc Manus’s fiction debut a success? Was this crime novel by the author of Real Ponies Don’t Go Oink also funny? You bet!

Maheu, Layne. Song of the Crow. Unbridled. ISBN 1-932961-18-6. $23.95.
Deemed “remarkable” (LJ 4/1/06), a “knockout debut” (Seattle Post-Intelligencer), and “worth a good, long look (San Diego-Union Tribune), Maheu’s lyrical story of a crow watching Noah build his ark was a BookSense pick that should continue soaring.

Mullins, Meg. The Rug Merchant. Viking. ISBN 0-670-03481-9. $23.95.
This tale of uncommon love between an immigrant rug merchant in New York and a much younger college student grabbed both Discover Great New Writers and Borders Original Voices honors. “A rewarding study in contrasts between the joy of love and the pain of vulnerability” (LJ 3/1/06).

Meadows, Rae. Calling Me Out. MacAdam/Cage. ISBN 1-59692-165-X. $22.
It’s not every debut that stars an at-loose-ends young woman working for a Mormon-approved escort service, but this one certainly did the trick. It was a Discover Great New Writers pick and one of Entertainment Weekly’s “50 Hot Summer Books,” and Poets & Writers declared Meadows a debut writer to watch.

Osborne, Betsey. The Natural History of Uncas Metcalfe. St. Martin’s. ISBN 0- 312-34277-2. $22.95.
Crafting the story of an aging botany professor whose family life suddenly goes awry, Vanity Fair contributing editor Osborne has produced “a powerful first novel about love, and betrayal, and family, and hometown” (LJ 4/1/06).

Pitlor, Heidi. The Birthdays. Norton. ISBN 0-393-06127-2. $23.95.
Three siblings come together for their father’s 75th birthday and celebrate with BookSense and Borders Original Voices gifts, not to mention a rafter of terrific reviews. An “engrossing portrayal of ordinary people coping with life’s calamities” (LJ 6/1/06).

Read, Cornelia. A Field of Darkness. Mysterious. ISBN 0-89296-023-X. $22.95.
Lee Child considered Read’s story about a cold-case murder so good that he invited her on a joint book tour, and critics from places like Newsday, Spine tingler, and Romantic Times Book Club magazine applauded. (LJ 3/1/06)

Savage, Sam. Firmin: Adventures of a Metropolitan Lowlife. Coffee House, dist. by Consortium. ISBN 1-56689-181-7. pap. $14.95.
Firmin the rat may announce upfront that his is “the saddest story ever heard,” but there’s a happy ending. Not only did this little tale of life in a decaying Boston neighborhood win Discover Great New Writers and BookSense attention but it has proven the publisher’s fastest-selling book ever. (LJ 5/1/06)

Strayed, Cheryl. Torch. Houghton. ISBN 0-618-47217-7. $24.
Strayed’s account of a family coping with a mother’s death from cancer won excellent coverage both locally (it made the Minneapolis Star-Tribune’s best sellers list) and nationally (“heartbreaking,” said People’s three-and-a-half-star review). (LJ 9/1/05)

Tea, Michelle. Rose of No Man’s Land. MacAdam/Cage. ISBN 1-59692-160-9. $22.
“Gritty, animated, original, and disturbing” (LJ 12/05)—all terrific adjectives to describe Tea’s coming-of-age novel, which has gone into three printings (for a total of 25,000 copies) and sent the author on a 25-city tour.

Unger, Lisa. Beautiful Lies. Crown. ISBN 0-307-33668-9. $23.
The story of a young woman whose life is upended by the contents of a mysterious envelope, this debut racked up lots of foreign sales and took a trip to the New York Times best sellers list.

Wasserstein, Wendy. Elements of Style. Knopf. ISBN 1-4000-4231-3. $23.95.
Wasserstein’s first novel—and, sadly, her last—stands as a memorial to a remarkable writing career. Not surprisingly, it hit best sellers lists nationwide and went through four printings. (LJ 3/1/06)