First Novels: Debuts Unlimited

Murder and magic, illicit love and puppy love, home-grown tragedy and the ravages of far-off war. No one topic defines a first novel, and, no, they aren’t all autobiographical. Among last season’s top debuts, published from August through December 2007, are Ellen Litman’s cross-format The Last Chicken in America: A Novel in Stories and genre benders like Derek Nikitas’s Pyres and C.L. Wilson’s Lord of the Fading Lands. An exception was made for Sarah Addison Allen’s exceptional Garden Spells. Years ago, Allen published two small romances under a pseudonym, but since she has remade herself by choosing to work in another genre under her own name, it seemed wise to cite her current success here.

Allen, Sarah Addison. Garden Spells. Bantam. ISBN 978-0-553-80548-2. $20.

Bringing together sisters with a magical touch, Allen cast a powerful spell. Her book was not only the fifth title in the new Barnes & Noble Recommends feature but also a New York Times best seller for four weeks. In an 11th printing; 150,000 copies available. (LJ 7/07)

Campbell, Gordon. Missing Witness. Morrow. ISBN 978-0-06-133751-2. $24.95.

Who killed the rich rancher, his wife or his daughter? The suspense generated by that question won newbie author Campbell, a sixtyish lawyer who sent his manuscript to Morrow unsolicited, both an Edgar First Novel nomination and four trips back to the printer. (LJ 8/07)

Carrell, Jennifer Lee. Interred with Their Bones. Dutton. ISBN 978-0-525-94970-1. $25.95.

The good Carrell did was hardly interred. Instead, this debut thriller, centered on the discovery of a lost Shakespeare play, made the New York Times extended best sellers list. (LJ 8/07)

Clarke, Brock. An Arsonist’s Guide to Writers’ Homes in New England. Algonquin. ISBN 978-1-56512-551-3. $23.95.

Clarke has been burning down the house with this rueful tale of a teenager whose dropped cigarette causes big trouble. The book roared through its first printing, with 50,000 copies now available, and made Amazon’s monthly Significant Seven list. It was also a Booksense pick, a Borders Original Voices award finalist, and among the first titles cited in Checked Out, a new e-feature from LJ on books that are moving well in public libraries. (LJ 7/07)

Díaz, Junot. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. Riverhead: Penguin Group (USA). ISBN 978-1-59448-958-7. $24.95

Díaz followed up a highly regarded story collection from a decade ago with a first novel that really delivered. A finalist for the National Book Critics Circle fiction award, it made the best sellers lists of over 30 media outlets and organizations and won the Mercantile Library Center for Fiction’s 2007 John Sargent Sr., First Novel Prize. (LJ Xpress Review, 8/28/07)

Eck, Matthew. The Farther Shore. Milkweed. ISBN 978-1-57131-057-6. $22.

Eck’s story of a U.S. Army unit lost somewhere in East Africa was one of only three fiction finalists for this year’s Discover Award, announced in late February. “Veteran Matthew Eck has swallowed some sand in his time. And his mesmerizing debut novel kicks up one helluva sandstorm,” explained the judges. (LJ 9/15/07)

Forbes, Elena. Die with Me. MacAdam/Cage. ISBN 978-1-59692-277-8. $24.

An investigation of a teenager’s death at St. Sebastian’s Church turns into an “engrossing police procedural that fans of Jill McGown and Ian Rankin will place on their reserve list” (LJ 9/1/07). A Booksense pick.

Horan, Nancy. Loving Frank. Ballantine. ISBN 978-0-345-49499-3. $23.95.

The story of Frank Lloyd’s Wright incendiary love affair with Mamah Borthwick Cheney, this debut was a Booksense, Border Book Club, and Amazon Significant Seven pick and lasted four weeks on the New York Times best sellers list. (LJ 7/07)

Khakpour, Porochista. Sons and Other Flammable Objects. Grove. ISBN 978-0-8021-1853-0. $24.

This story of Iranian American Xerxes Adam was both a New York Times Editors’ Choice (for its “biting humor and acute cultural observations”) and a featured title on the Chicago Tribune’s 2007 Fall’s Best list. (LJ 8/07)

King, Rachael. The Sound of Butterflies. Norton. ISBN 978-0-06-135764-0. $24.95.

“Captivating” (Washington Post). “Compelling” (USA Today). “Mordantly magnetic” (Book Page). Winner of the New Zealand Society of Authors Hubert Church Best First Book Award for Fiction, this tale of a 19th-century amateur naturalist literally stunned by his trip to steamy Brazil racked up high praise here, too. (LJ 9/15/07)

Kingman, Peg. Not Yet Drown’d. Norton.ISBN 978-0-393-06546-6. $24.95.

Even without fancy Booksense or Discover credentials, this book pushed into multiple printings. Maybe it’s because “Kingman tells a swashbuckler of a story” (Boston Globe) that starts off with Catherine MacDonald receiving a package from a twin brother supposedly “drown’d” in India. (LJ 9/1/07)

Litman, Ellen. The Last Chicken in America: A Novel in Stories. Norton. ISBN 978-0-393-06511-4. $23.95.

With multiple strong reviews in venues ranging from the Moscow Times (“Litman tenderly balances pathos and humor”) to the Los Angeles Times (“the language of the book catches the ear”) and including LJ (“a beautifully written, highly amusing, and sometimes sobering look at contemporary Russian Jewish immigration to America”), Litman shows that she’s a writer to watch. Multiple printings, too. (LJ 8/07)

Loomis, Jon. High Season. Minotaur: St. Martin’s. ISBN 978-0-312-36769-5. $24.95.

It’s not every debut that gets picked as a top mystery of the year by the Washington Post Book World, and it’s not every mystery that gets picked as a New York Times Editors’ Choice. And Loomis got a second printing in the bargain. (LJ 8/07)

McDonald, Craig. Head Games. Bleak House: Big Earth. ISBN 978-1-932557-42-8. $24.95; pap. 978-1-932557-43-5. $14.95.

An Edgar First Novel nominee, centered on a gruesome curio possessed by Yale’s Skull & Bones society, this novel made the San Francisco Chronicle’s Top Ten Crime Books list for its “violent, frothing frenzy.” (LJ 8/07)

McGinniss, Joe, Jr. The Delivery Man. Black Cat: Grove. ISBN 978-0-8021-7042-2. pap. $14.

Move over, Joe McGinniss. McGinniss Jr. is picking up where your nonfiction left off. A New York Times Editors’ Choice that went back for a second printing (with a total of over 30,000 copies now available), this look at life’s seamy side won rave reviews. As Marie Claire mused, “CouldThe Delivery Man be this decade’sLess Than Zero?” (LJ 10/15/07)

Nikitas, Derek. Pyres. Minotaur: St. Martin’s. ISBN 978-0-312-36397-0. $24.95.

Sure, Nikitas’s mystery/horror/fantasy tale of three lives intertwining after a murder won an Edgar First Novel nomination. But, proclaims the Chicago Tribune, this “stellar first novel isn’t just one of the best genre debuts of the year, it’s one of the best releases—period.” (LJ 10/15/07)

Pancake, Ann. Strange As This Weather Has Been. Shoemaker & Hoard. ISBN 978-1-59376-166-0. pap. $15.95.

This dark tale of ecological and human devastation in a West Virginia mining town was a New York Times Editors’ Choice; “essential reading” (LJ 9/15/08).

Phillips, Marie. Gods Behaving Badly. Little, Brown. ISBN 978-0-316-06762-1. $23.99.

Buoyed by “an Olympian sense of absurdity and…enough ambrosial wit…to seduce most mortals” (Washington Post Book World), this debut about the Greek gods just getting by in contemporary London made the Booksense roster and went back to press for a second printing. (LJ 10/1/07)

Romano-Lax, Andromeda. The Spanish Bow. Harcourt. ISBN 978-0-15-101542-9. $25.

Loosely based on the life of the great cellist Pablo Casals, this “exceptionally appealing first novel” (LJ 8/07) won attention as book a Booksense pick and a New York Times Editors’ Choice.

Sofer, Dalia. The Septembers of Shiraz. Ecco: HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-06-113040-3. $24.95.

“Richly evocative…powerfully affecting…as beautiful and delicate as a book about suffering can be.” High praise for this study of Jewish life in Iran after the revolution, and that’s just from the New York Times review. A Times Notable Book, a Booksense pick, and a Barnes & Noble Talk with Authors October pick. (LJ 4/15/07)

Wilson, C.L. Lord of the Fading Lands. Leisure: Dorchester. ISBN 978-0-8439-5977-2. pap. $7.99.

Blending romance and fantasy, Wilson got the best of both. This book hit the BookScan, USA Today, and New York Times paperback best sellers lists. Its sequel, Lady of Light and Shadow, followed shortly thereafter, and both books have sold over 250,000 copies. (LJ 9/15/07)

Wood, Patricia. Lottery. Putnam. ISBN 978-0-399-15449-2. $24.95.

What happens to a young man with a low IQ when he wins the lottery? He also wins great reviews (“an irresistible debut,” Good Housekeeping), gets picked for the Literary Guild/Doubleday book club, sells nearly 40,000 copies in six months, and makes the Washington Post’s Best Books list. (LJ 8/07)