Staff Picks: Fiction By Debut Authors
by eapearce
Everyone has to start somewhere, and sometimes an author’s first book isn’t always their best work. It can take time to find one’s voice and style of writing! I often find it interesting to go back and read an author’s early work after discovering them by reading their third or fourth novel. Debuts often just feel a bit less… polished. But sometimes an author seems to know exactly how to tell a story right from the start and, first book or not, the writing keeps readers turning the pages as quickly as they can. Several 2024 debuts that fall into this category have already been released. If you’re looking to discover a new author and dive right into some excellent writing, peruse these suggestions!
Ways and Means, by Daniel Lefferts | Request Now
Alistair McCabe arrives in New York determined to escape the Rust Belt poverty of his childhood. He’s determined, fiercely intelligent, handsome, gay, and eager to earn an excellent living to support the mother who raised him and give her a better life. There’s a fine line between ambition and greed, however, and as Alistair is sucked into the world of modern high finance, he finds himself adrift and unsure of how to make the right decisions. Desperate, in the spring of 2016 he begins working for an enigmatic billionaire and tries to keep his dream alive. Of course, things don’t go according to plan and when Alistair discovers his employer’s secret he finds himself on the run and, along with the older couple he’d been in a relationship with, facing a nation on the brink of chaos to match that of his personal life. Ways and Means is an “indelible, deeply moving investigation of class and ambition, sex and art, and politics and power in the American 21st century.”
Holiday Country, by Inci Atrek | Request Now
Nineteen-year-old Ada’s mother grew up in Turkey and Ada loves spending dreamy summers there, though she struggles to feel truly a part of the culture of her mother’s native country. When Levent, a mysterious man from Ada’s mother’s past, shows up in town, Ada starts to imagine a new life for her mother back in her home country, happy and fulfilled. As Ada starts to play matchmaker for her mother and Levent, she begins to struggle with her own attraction to him and starts to wonder if the future she imagined for her mother might really be the future that she is imagining for herself. Atrek perfectly captures the experience of being a part of two very different worlds and of trying to live a life that is at least partially always in translation. Combine this with a generation-spanning love triangle, and you’ve got the fascinating read that is Holiday Country.
Rabbit Hole, by Kate Brody | Request Now
Readers seeking a new voice in the thriller genre will be excited to discover Kate Brody. Her first novel focuses on Theodora “Teddy” Angstrom, whose older sister Angie disappeared ten years ago. When Teddy’s father Mark dies on the anniversary of Angie’s disappearance, his family realizes that Mark was deeply involved in investigating conspiracy theories about Angie that he sourced from a Reddit community focused on her case. Teddy finds herself falling down this same “rabbit hole” –hence the title!--and begins to wonder if Angie might still be alive. However, not everyone wants Teddy to get so involved in the past, and as she struggles to both process her grief and reconcile her memories with what others tell her, her behavior becomes increasingly erratic and dangerous. This is an emotional page-turner that will appeal in particular to fans of true crime–or anyone who has fallen victim to a late-night Reddit binge.
River East, River West, by Aube Rey Lescure | Request Now
The story opens in 2007, when fourteen-year-old Alva is furious that her forty-something American mother is marrying a sixty-something Chinese businessman. Alva feels that Lu Fang has stolen her beloved mother from her and is just one in a long line of wealthy Chinese men that have financed her and her mother’s lives in China. Alva has never met her biological Chinese father, and desperately wants to move to America, but her mother, a former American movie star, enjoys the anonymity of Shanghai and sees no reason to return to her native country. Alva’s perspective is interspersed with that of Lu Fang’s, and readers get to see him as a younger man, struggling with his impending fatherhood with a wife he does not love. The different perspectives add depth to all of the characters, and paint a vivid portrait of a unique family straddling two different cultures. Readers will find this story compelling.
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