First Novelists 2007: In the News
By Barbara Hoffert with Ann Burns -- Library Journal, 3/15/2007
There aren’t that many titles in this retrospective of last season’s most successful first novels, books by writers to watch that received a measure of critical acclaim as well as audience support. But those that made it have big stories to tell. One claimed the top spot on the New York Times best sellers list, for instance, while another grabbed the attention of a major director. In addition, several debuts got clobbered in the press for not living up to the great expectations that had foreshadowed their arrivals, which may reflect less on the books than the expectations. Don’t forget to check out the list of forthcoming debuts, where starred entries highlight books that have already received exceptional reviews in LJ. They just might make it onto this list next season.
Alderman, Naomi. Disobedience. Touchstone: S. & S. ISBN 978-0-7432-9156-9. $24.
The tale of a Jewish lesbian who must return home to Britain, this deftly detailed work “breaks new ground by extending equal sympathy to both the rebel and those she left behind” (LJ 8/06). It also got a nod from Discover Great New Writers.
Chang, Henry. Chinatown Beat: A Detective Jack Yu Investigation. Soho, dist. by Consortium. ISBN 978-1-56947-437-2. $22.
Best Debut Mystery, South Florida Sun-Sentinel. Best Crime Fiction pick, Januarymagazine. Pick of the Week, Confessions of an Idiosyncratic Mind, Sarah Weinman’s popular mystery blog. Clearly, NYPD police detective Jack Yu has arrived. (LJ 11/1/06)
Flynn, Gillian. Sharp Objects. Shaye Areheart: Harmony, dist. by Crown. ISBN 978-0-307-34154-9. $24.
Reporter Camille Preaker returns to her hometown to investigate a serial killer and gets uniformly ravishing reviews for her efforts. This thriller has ripped through four printings, and everyone seems to agree that Entertainment Weeklycritic Flynn is “the real deal” (Cleveland Plain Dealer). (LJ 8/06)
Geoffrion, Alan. Broken Trail. Fulcrum. ISBN 978-155591-605-3. pap. $14.95.
Never mind that Geoffrion’s hard-driving Western was a featured alternate of the BOMC or that it’s gone through seven printings. The big news is that it was made into a TV miniseries starring Robert Duvall that copped three Golden Globe nominations.
Gilmore, Jennifer. Golden Country. Scribner. ISBN 978-0-7432-8863-7. $25.
It’s no surprise that this sparkling tale of two Jewish immigrant families in early 1900s America has hit a third printing. Aside from copious upbeat reviews (“memorable and often powerful,” LJ 8/06), it earned everything from a Vanity Fair“Hot Type” sidebar to Notable Books acclamation from the New York Times.
Hains, Richard. Chameleon. Beaufort. ISBN 978-0-8253-0510-8. $24.95.
Heeding the admonition to write about what one knows, private hedge fund manager Hains crafted this spiffy financial thriller. The book was a mystery/suspense/thriller finalist in USA Today’s Best Books 2006 awards; film rights were sold to the producers of Hotel Rwanda.
Ledgard, J.M. Giraffe. Penguin Pr: Penguin Group (USA). ISBN 978-1-59420-099-1. $24.95.
“Mesmerizing as a fairy tale” (Cleveland Plain Dealer). “A moving allegory” (Chicago Tribune). “A bravura debut” (San Francisco Chronicle). Great reviews, and Ledgard’s take on the slaughter of the world’s largest herd of domesticated giraffes in 1970s Czechoslovakia was also a Borders Original Voices pick and an LJBest Book of 2006. (LJ 8/06)
Mullen, Thomas. The Last Town on Earth. Random. ISBN 978-1-4000-6520-2. $23.95.
Mullen’s fictional Commonwealth, WA, quarantines itself during the 1918 flu epidemic, but this debut got right out there and mingled with the crowd, picking up Booksense and USA TodayBest Debut honors and begging for a second printing even after a generous first run. “Timely and sobering” (LJ 7/06).
Newman, Janis Cooke. Mary. MacAdam/Cage. ISBN 1-931561-63-X. $26.
Taking a big leap from her nonfiction The Russian Word for Snow to paint this portrait of First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln, Newman was rewarded when the book became a San Francisco Chroniclebest seller as well as a Booksense pick. The book sold out its first printing within weeks and quickly joined the top 200 books sold on barnesandnoble.com and the top 250 on Amazon.com. (LJ 8/06)
Novik, Naomi. His Majesty’s Dragon. Del Rey: Ballantine. ISBN 0-345-48128-3. pap. $7.95.
Listen up, LOTRfans; Peter Jackson is at it again. He’s just optioned the entire trilogy opened by this mass-market original. A fantasy that reads “like Jane Austen playing Dungeons and Dragons with Eragon’s Christopher Paolini” (Time), it has reprinted seven times, helped by rave reviews and an Entertainment WeeklyEditor’s Choice citation. The entire Temeraire trilogy, which includes Throne of Jade and Black Powder War, now has 335,000 copies in print. (LJ 4/15/06)
Pessl, Marisha. Special Topics in Calamity Physics. Viking. ISBN 978-0-670-03777-3. $25.95.
It’s every writer’s dream: start out with an ambitious first novel (in this case, one structured like a college lit course), launch with a modest 22,500-copy first printing, get a glowing front-page review in the New York Times Book Review, grab a spot on the Times “10 Best Books of 2006” list, and see your book soar to 114,000 books in print after nine printings.
Rosenbaum, Lisa Pearl. A Day of Small Beginnings. Little, Brown. ISBN 978-0-316-01451-9. $24.99.
In early 1900s Poland, the ghost of Friedl Alterman rises up to protect young Itzak Leiber and launches a story that spans three generations. Rosenbaum’s “brilliant debut” (LJ 10/1/06) was a Discover Great New Writers pick.
Sakey, Marcus. The Blade Itself. Minotaur: St. Martin’s. ISBN 978-0-312-36031-3. $22.95.
Dubbed the first page-turner of 2007 by New York Times critic Janet Maslin on CBS Sunday Morning, this account of a former criminal’s twisted efforts to stay straight won lots of nice little perks, like a cover story from Crimespree magazine. “What a thrilling ride as debut author Sakey steers his plot through a plan doomed to failure” (LJ 10/15/06).
Setterfield, Diane. The Thirteenth Tale. Atria: S. & S. ISBN 978-0-7432-9802-5. $26.
“It’s a Gothic novel, and it doesn’t pretend to be anything fancier. But this one grabs the reader with its damp, icy fingers and doesn’t let go.” LJ’s reviewer got it right; so many readers couldn’t let go of this tale that it basked on the New York Times Best Sellers list for nine weeks, having debuted in the top spot. (LJ 8/06)
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Jon Clinch. Finn. Random. Feb. Pennsylvania. (LJ 1/07)| Author Information |
| Barbara Hoffert is Editor and Ann Burns is Associate Editor,LJ Book Review |
