Year in Debut Display
2024 was a fabulous year for reading, thanks in part to some of the amazing debut novels published this year. We've created a whole display of these debuts to help you discover new authors and first books. Check out some of the titles that released this year!
Morgan Talty's previously released collection of short stories was amazing, so we were eagerly anticipating his debut novel "Fire Exit." "From the porch of his home, Charles Lamosway has watched the life he might have had unfold across the river on Maine's Penobscot Reservation. On the far bank, he caught brief moments of his neighbor Elizabeth's life--from the day she came home from the hospital to her early twenties. But there's always been something deeper and more dangerous than the river that divides him from her and the rest of the tribal community. It's the secret that Elizabeth is his daughter, a secret Charles is no longer willing to keep. Now, it's been weeks since he's seen Elizabeth, and Charles is worried. As he attempts to hold on to and care for what he can--his home and property; his alcoholic, quick-tempered, and bighearted friend Bobby; and his mother, Louise, who is slipping ever deeper into dementia--he becomes increasingly haunted by his past. Forced to confront a lost childhood on the reservation, a love affair cut short, and the death of his beloved stepfather, Fredrick, in a hunting accident--a death he and Louise are at odds over as to where to lay blame--Charles contends with questions he's long been afraid to ask. Is his secret about Elizabeth his to share? And would his daughter want to know the truth, even if it could cost her everything she's ever known?"
Nicola Yoon has been writing YA novels for some time, but this year marked the release of her first adult novel "One of Our Kind." "When Jasmyn and King Williams move their family to the planned Black utopia of Liberty, California, they hope to find a community of like-minded people, a place where their growing family can thrive. King settles in at once, embracing the Liberty ethos, including the luxe wellness center at the top of the hill, which proves to be the heart of the community. But Jasmyn struggles to fit in. She expected to find liberals and social justice activists striving for racial equality, but Liberty residents seem more focused on spa treatments and keeping up appearances. Jasmyn's only friends in the community are equally perplexed and frustrated by Liberty's outlook, a frustration that turns to concern when their loved ones start embracing the Liberty way of life. As Jasmyn learns more about Liberty and its founders, she discovers a terrible secret that threatens to destroy her world in ways she could never have imagined."
Filled with violence, tragedy, tenderness, longing, and the unvarnished courage of women living in a mostly unseen America, "Perris, California" by Rachel Stark is the utterly gripping story of one woman's journey from trauma to healing. "In this unforgettable debut novel, twenty-seven-year-old Tessa, pregnant with her third child and living in a trailer on her mother-in-law's property, encounters the woman she used to love--leading Tessa to question the very foundations of the life she's built Abandoned by first her father and then her mother, as a girl Tessa is left to live with her abusive stepfather and stepbrother. She survives by finding reserves of strength in herself, and by the surprising, transformative love of another teenage girl, Mel, who sees through Tessa's tough exterior to the vulnerable, scarred, loving woman inside. When she suddenly loses Mel, too, Tessa stumbles into a saving grace of a different kind with Henry and his mama, Angie, becoming a mother and finding herself in a familial existence that somehow carries her into adulthood-until the day she runs into Mel, who has just returned to Perris after years away."
You’ll find these titles and lots more in our “Feel Good Fiction” display. For additional title suggestions, see the lists below:
