Fiction Debuts - 2002

A list featuring some selected first novels and debut short story collections (mostly hardcover). This list may not be comprehensive. First novel information is collected from a variety of sources. Annotations are from Advance, the Ingram Book Magazine - unless otherwise noted.

• The Last Good Chance
  Author: Barbash, Tom
  Publisher: Picador $ 24 ISBN: 0312287968
  PW
  This darkly funny debut is the deftly plotted story of a dying lakeside town and the four characters who must find their way through their own unexpected transformations as they question, "What is the price of loyalty, goodness, and love?"
  Suggested Reading: First Fiction Debuts
  Updated 8.13.02
• House Under Snow
  Author: Bialosky, Jill
  Publisher: Harcourt $ 24 ISBN: 0151006857
  PW Library Journal
  The first novel by an acclaimed poet and author of Subterranean, House Under Snow is a story of mothers and daughters, of sexual identity, and of a family slowly disintegrating after the premature death of its patriarch.
  Suggested Reading: First Fiction Debuts
  Updated 6.29.02
• No Bones
  Author: Burns, Anna
  Publisher: Norton $ 13.95 (trade paper) ISBN: 039332303x
  Library Journal
  A shattering and blackly funny debut in the tradition of Roddy Doyle, No Bones follows a young woman growing up in a Belfast beset by the Troubles.
  Suggested Reading: First Fiction
  
• The Emperor of Ocean Park
  Author: Carter, Stephen L.
  Publisher: Knopf $ 26.95 ISBN: 0375413634
  Kirkus Booklist PW
  The Emperor of Ocean Park is as brilliant in its suspense as in its acute social observation. Set in the privileged world of New York-Washington-Martha's Vineyard upper-crust African-American society and the inner circle of an Ivy League law school, it tells the story of a complex family with a single seductive and dangerous link to the shadowlands of crime.
  Suggested Reading: African American Stars and Legal Stars
  
• The Contortionist's Handbook
  Author: Clevenger, Craig
  Publisher: Macadam Cage $ 23 ISBN: 193156115x
  Kirkus
  Suggested Reading: First Fiction
  Updated 7.17.02
• In the Casa Azul
  Author: Delahunt, Meaghan
  Publisher: St Martins $ 23.95 ISBN:031229106x
  Library Journal
  Spreading before the reader a panorama of Russian history, revolution, and upheaval through the first half of the 20th century, this literary work finds Leon Trotsky taking refuge in Mexico City when he is pursued country to country by Stalin's agents.
  Suggested Reading: First Fiction
  
• Shell Collector: Stories
  Author: Doerr, Anthony
  Publisher: Scribner $ 23 ISBN: 0743212746
  Booklist PW
  A prize-winning young writer's finely crafted and imaginative debut takes readers from the African coast to the suburbs of Ohio in a fiercely beautiful language.
  
• Confessing a Murder
  Author: Drayson, Nicholas
  Publisher: Norton $ 23.95 ISBN: 0393051293
  Kirkus
  In this debut novel by an Australian naturalist, murder, a vanished tropical island, and a thwarted love affair are all clues to the origin of Charles Darwin's famous theory.
  Suggested Reading: First Fiction
  
• Leaving
  Author: Dry, Richard
  Publisher: St Martins $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312283318
  Booklist
  Leaving begins in 1959, when newly-widowed and pregnant Ruby Washington and her half-brother, Easton, board a bus in rural South Carolina destined for California. Their lives, and the lives of Ruby's daughter Lida and her children are played out against the turbulent backdrop of the '60s and the drug-infested neighborhoods of the '80s and '90s.
  Suggested Reading: First Fiction
  Reading Group Guide
  
• Queenmaker: A Novel of David's Queen
  Author: Edgehill, India
  Publisher: St Martins $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312289189
  Kirkus Library Journal
  For more than 40 years, Michal lived and reigned in David's court. Speaking as a sister, a wife, a mother, a lover, a woman both scorned and worshipped, and above all, as a friend to David's other women, Queen Michal reveals her hopes and pains, as the fire of God burns and war, passion, murder, and prophecy fill the Promised Land.
  Suggested Reading: Historical Fiction Stars
  
• Three Junes
  Author: Glass, Julia
  Publisher: Pantheon $ 25 ISBN: 0375421440
  PW
  This symphonic first novel teems with relationships and interconnected lives--about love, death, and birth in a Scottish family.
  Suggested Reading: First Fiction
  
• The Torn Skirt
  Author: Godfrey, Rebecca
  Publisher: Perennial $ 11.95 (trade paper) ISBN: 0060094850
  Kirkus LJ
  Desperate for guidance, for friendship, for some sign that she's not a freak of nature, Sara has a fleeting encounter with the mysterious Justine--the girl in the torn skirt. Already acclaimed in Canada for its raw intimacy and fresh, original voice, this is a daring debut that gives voice to the profound and universal experience of teenage isolation, desire, and despair.
  Suggested Reading: First Fiction Debuts
  Updated 11.20.02
• The Mulberry Empire
  Author: Hensher, Philip
  Publisher: Knopf $ 26 ISBN: 0375414886
  Kirkus Booklist
  Spanning a decade and moving between London and Calcutta, The Mulberry Empire explores the doomed 1839 mission of some 50,000 forces of the British Empire as they entered Afghanistan to overthrow a hostile amir.
  Suggested Reading: Historical Fiction Stars
  Updated 9.7.02
• River Woman
  Author: Hermans, Donna
  Publisher: Washington Square $ 23 ISBN: 0743410394
  Kirkus
  From a new literary talent comes a first novel set in Jamaica and New York that explores the ties which bind mother to child and weaves a mesmerizing tale of promises broken and dreams deferred.
  
• The Snowman's Children
  Author: Hirschberg, Glen
  Publisher: Carroll & Graf $ 24 ISBN: 0786710829
  Kirkus
  The Snowman's Children is a moving, psychologically intense first novel that tells the story of an incident from one man's childhood in the 1970s, when a serial killer called The Snowman stalked the streets of suburban Detroit.
  Updated 9.9.02
• The Secret
  Author: Hoffman, Eva
  Publisher: Public Affairs $ 25 ISBN: 1586481509
  PW LJ
  In this gripping debut novel, Hoffman uses the near future to reflect on the fast-moving present and to explore various kinds of secrets: intimate secrets and family secrets, the kinds of secrets that can be decoded from clues, and the kind that only lead to more tantalizing questions about the nature of consciousness and self-knowledge.
  Updated 9.23.02
• When the Elephants Dance
  Author: Holthe, Tess Uriza
  Publisher: Crown $ 24.95 ISBN: 0609609521
  Kirkus Library Journal PW
  Inspired, in part, by the experiences of her father, who was a boy in the Philippines during World War II, this debut novel begins during the final week of the Japanese-American battle for the islands. As they hide in a cellar from the Japanese, several Filipino civilians tell magical tales to help pass the time, fuel their courage, and teach important lessons of hope.
  
• In the Image
  Author: Horn, Dara
  Publisher: Norton $ 24.95 ISBN: 0393051064
  Booklist PW
  Not just a fine first novel, this is a young woman's coming of age story, a romantic love story, and a spiritual journey, each infused with the lessons of history.
  Suggested Reading: First Fiction Debuts
  Updated 8.27.02
• Wavemaker 2
  Author: Hughes, Mary-Beth
  Publisher: Atlantic $ 24 ISBN: 0871138352
  Booklist Library Journal
  An exhilarating debut, Wavemaker II is a heart-stopping story of what happens when one man takes a fall for another, leaving his family in disarray. Combining poetic intensity with a gritty realism, Mary-Beth Hughes has delivered a masterpiece of page-turning suspense.
  
• Burning Marguerite
  Author: Inness-Brown, Elizabeth
  Publisher: Knopf $ 23 ISBN: 0375411968
  PW
  Waking to the chill of a snow-cloaked morning, carpenter James Jack finds his 94-year-old "Tante, " Marguerite Deo, lying dead outside his cabin. As he confronts the mystery of her death, an emotionally intricate and unexpected tale unfolds in a narrative that moves from the present back to a windswept New England island at the turn of the century, and to New Orleans during the Depression and World War II.
  Suggested Reading: Historical Fiction Stars
  
• Enemy Women
  Author: Jiles, Paulette
  Publisher: Morrow $ 24.95 ISBN: 0066214440
  Kirkus PW LJ
  The Colley family are modest farmers in the Missouri Ozarks. The Colleys try to remain neutral, a fact ignored by the Union militia who confiscate their livestock, burn their farm, and arrest their daughter on charges of "enemy collaboration." Yet as this innocent young woman soon discovers, fate can have a double edge. In unsentimental yet elegant prose, Jiles reveals the universal horrors of war and its irreparable damage, and introduces a wonderful new character in a memorable story.
  Suggested Reading: Historical Fiction Stars & Civil War Stars
  
• Man Walks Into a Room
  Author: Krauss, Nicole
  Publisher: Doubleday $ 23.95 ISBN: 0385503997
  LJ
  In this shimmering debut novel of memory, identity, and love, an English professor's brain tumor eradicates his memories past the age of 12 as he mourns a life well-lived and profoundly forgotten.
  Suggested Reading: First Fiction
  
• The Impressionist
  Author: Kunzru, Hari
  Publisher: Dutton $ 24.95 ISBN: 052594642x
  PW Booklist Library Journal Kirkus
  Sweeping from India to England to France and Africa and played out on a teeming world canvas, The Impressionist is the unforgettable riches-to-rags story of a boy who is born a lie and must adapt--or perish.
  
• The Ecstatic
  Author: Lavalle, Victor
  Publisher: Crown $ 22.95 ISBN: 0609610147
  PW
  Something is wrong with Anthony, and it's getting worse. Schizophrenia runs in his family's blood, picking off an uncle here, a mother there, and has now found a home in Anthony's mind. From the acclaimed author of the short-story collection Slapboxing with Jesus comes this inventive, funny, and heartbreaking first novel.
  Updated 9.23.02
• Crow Lake
  Author: Lawson, Mary
  Publisher: Dial $ 23.95 ISBN: 038533611x
  Kirkus PW
  For the farming Pye family of northern Ontario, life is a Greek tragedy where the sins of the fathers are visited on the sons, and terrible events occur offstage. In this universal drama of family love and misunderstandings, Lawson ratchets up the tension with heartbreaking humor and consummate control.
  
• The Year of Ice
  Author: Malloy, Brian
  Publisher: St Martins $ 22.95 ISBN: 0312289480
  Booklist
  In this debut novel about a boy dealing with his mother's death, a painfully revealing year threatens to shatter the tenuous bonds between the teen and his father.
  Suggested Reading: First Fiction Debuts
  Updated 6.29.02
• It's My F***ing Birthday
  Author: Markoe, Merrill
  Publisher: Villard $21.95 ISBN: 0375507124
  PW
  Legendary comedy writer Merrill Markoe makes her fiction debut in this scathingly funny tale of an L.A. woman's ongoing quest to find happiness.
  
• Shackling Water
  Author: Mansbach, Adam
  Publisher: Doubleday $ 22.95 ISBN: 0385502052
  LJ Booklist Kirkus
  In the tradition of James Baldwin and Ralph Ellison, Adam Mansbach captures the rhythms of jazz in a remarkable debut novel about a young man looking for his muse in Harlem.
  Suggested Reading: African American Stars and Music & Fiction
• Piano Tuner
  Author: Mason, Daniel Philippe
  Publisher: Knopf $ 24 ISBN: 0375414657
  Kirkus Library Journal
  A hypnotic tale of myth, romance, and self-discovery, this extraordinary fiction debut tells the story of a British piano tuner sent deep into Burma in the 19th century, where he encounters thieves, soldiers, and an enchanting but elusive woman.
  Suggested Reading: Historical Fiction Stars |First Fiction Debuts
  Updated 8.16.02
• Half in Love: Stories
  Author: Meloy, Maile
  Publisher: Scribner $ 23 ISBN: 0743216474
  Kirkus
  This much-anticipated debut confirms that Maile Meloy is a writer to watch, with 15 stories that combine a distinct voice and a striking wisdom about her characters and the worlds they occupy.
  Suggested Reading: First Fiction Debuts
  Updated 5.9.02
• Simon Silber: Works for Solo Piano
  Author: Miller, Christopher
  Publisher: Houghton $ 23 ISBN: 061814336x
  Booklist
  Miller's darkly hilarious first novel takes the form of liner notes to a recording of the complete works of a prodigiously cranky composer, who haunts the borderland between genius and mediocrity.
  Suggested Reading: First Fiction
  
• The Second Coming of Lucy Hatch
  Author: Moyer, Marsha
  Publisher: Morrow $ 24.95 ISBN: 0060081651
  PW
  A sparkling new voice introduces farm wife Lucy Hatch, a widow at age 33 who returns to her tiny Texas hometown, contemplating a life of solitude. The last thing she expects is to find Ash Ferrell, a dashing man who teaches Lucy to work through her heartache. As their romance blossoms, Lucy and Ash must endure an irate ex-girlfriend, a false arrest, and a 20-year flood.
  Suggested Reading: First Fiction Debuts
  Updated 6.29.02
• Video: Stories
  Author: Nair, Meera
  Publisher: Pantheon $ 21.95 ISBN: 0375421114
  Kirkus Booklist
  
• Miracle at St Anna
  Author: McBride, James
  Publisher: Riverhead $ 24.95 ISBN: 1573222127
  LJ
  Based on the historical incident of an unspeakable massacre at the site of St. Anna Di Stazzema, a small village in Tuscany, and on the experiences of the famed Buffalo soldiers from the 92nd Division in Italy during World War II, Miracle at St. Anna is a singular evocation of war, cruelty, passion, and heroism. It is the story of four American Negro soldiers, a band of partisans, and an Italian boy who encounter a miracle--though perhaps the true miracle lies in themselves.
  Suggested Reading: African American Stars & World Wars
  
• The Dive from Clausen's Pier
  Author: Packer, Ann
  Publisher: Knopf $ 24 ISBN: 0375412824
  Kirkus PW Booklist
  A suspenseful, richly layered first novel that asks: How much do people owe the people they love? The Dive from Clausen's Pier will speak to all those who have ever thought about leaving when they knew they should stay or felt trapped, not only by circumstance, but by the strength of their own love.
  
• Violence, Nudity, Adult Content
  Author: Passaro, Vince
  Publisher: Simon & Schuster $ 24 ISBN: 068485726x
  Kirkus Library Journal Booklist
  With Violence, Nudity, Adult Content, the noted essayist and short story writer Vince Passaro offers a revelatory first novel of crime, sexual damage, and personal redemption--in a story that combines the grit of a Scott Turow courtroom thriller with an astute vision of a crumbling marriage, worthy of Russell Banks or Lorrie Moore. With present-day New York City teeming darkly as a backdrop to the relentless action, this thriller fires on all cylinders as a compelling literary page-turner.
  
• Prague
  Author: Philips, Arthur
  Publisher: Random $ 24.95 ISBN: 0375507876
  PW
  It is 1990 and the Berlin Wall has come down. Young Westerners flood into the atmospheric decay of post-Cold War Eastern Europe seeking the legendary Paris of the 1920s. Prague follows four Americans and one Canadian, flush with irony and striving for success in a place they often fail to understand.
  Suggested Reading: First Fiction
  
• The Memory Room
  Author: Rakow,Mary
  Publisher: Counterpoint $ 25 ISBN: 1582431728
  PW
  The Memory Room is a poetic, debut novel-in-verse about a woman who goes to hell and back in order to understand the depth of human evil and its possible transcendence. - Publisher Marketing
  
• Gone
  Author: Roper, Martin
  Publisher: Holt $ 23 ISBN: 0805067752
  PW
  In this erotic, emotional debut novel, a young Dubliner is torn between two cities, two cultures, and two women. "A marvelously nasty novel about love in our time" (Jim Harrison, author of The Beast God Forgot to Invent).
  
• In Open Spaces
  Author: Rowland, Russell
  Publisher: Perennial $ 13.95 (trade paper) ISBN: 0060084340
  PW
  Set in the unforgiving prairie of eastern Montana, this powerful and accomplished first novel captures the compelling story of the Arbuckle family from 1916 to 1946. As the story begins with a devastating loss for the family, the author masterfully weaves a tale of psychological wars that rip the family apart and the redemption that can ultimately bring them back together.
  Suggested Reading: Historical Fiction Stars
  
• Lovely Bones
  Author: Sebold, Alice
  Publisher: Little Brown $ 21.95 ISBN: 031666343
  Booklist Library Journal PW
  In the hands of a brilliant new novelist, and through the eyes of her winning new heroine, this tale of family, memory, love, and living is told by 14-year-old Susie Salmon, who is already in heaven. In the sweet, untroubled voice of a precocious teenage girl, Susie relates the awful events of her death and builds out of her family's grief the most hopeful and joyful of stories.
  
• Fruit of Stone
  Author: Spragg, Mark
  Publisher: Riverhead $ 12 (trade paper) ISBN: 1573222232
  Booklist
  From the author of the award-winning memoir Where Rivers Change Directions comes a brave, soulful, and poetic first novel that depicts the friendship between blood brothers as it plays out on a strange and fateful journey across the American West.
  Suggested Reading: First Fiction Debuts
  Updated 7.15.02
• Portable Promised Land: Stories
  Author: Toure
  Publisher: Little Brown $ 23.95 ISBN: 0316666432
  Library Journal
  With stunning language and dazzling characters, this debut by Tour introduces Soul City, a wholly imagined utopia where magic happens and black is beautiful.
  Suggested Reading: First Fiction Debuts
  Updated 6.7.02
• Burden
  Author: Walters, Tony
  Publisher: St Martins $23.95 ISBN: 0312287054
  Kirkus
  In this lyrical and funny novel, a young man named Burden tries to get himself killed by sleeping with as many married women as possible in his home town of Walterboro, South Carolina.
  
• Heaven of Mercury: A Novel
  Author: Watson, Brad
  Publisher: Norton $ 23.95 ISBN: 0393047571
  Kirkus
  A dark, riotous Southern novel of sex, death, and transformation. Brad Watson's first novel has been eagerly awaited since his award-winning debut collection of short stories, Last Days of the Dog-Men. Here, he fulfills that literary promise with a humorous and jaundiced eye.
  Suggested Reading: First Fiction Debuts
  Updated 5.20.02
• The Execution
  Author: Wilcken, Hugo
  Publisher: HarperCollins $ 23.95 ISBN: 0060188235
  PW Booklist
  From one of England's hottest new writers comes a smart, suspenseful tale about a self-assured young man's descent into madness and despair.
  
• Angel Rock
  Author: Williams, Darren
  Publisher: Knopf $ 23 ISBN: 0375414517
  PW
  From a young Australian writer whose first novel received the Australian/ Vogel Literary Award comes a new story about the disappearance of a four-year-old boy in the Australian Outback. Menacing and mesmerizing, dazzling in its evocation of terrain--both physical and psychological--Angel Rock is a brilliant combination of the literary and the entertaining.
  

Mystery, Suspense, Thrillers & Crime Fiction: First Novels 2002
More Debut/First Look information