Spring’s best debut novels
Lessons In Chemistry
Bonnie Garmus
Doubleday, £14.99
Bonnie Garmus’s entirely enjoyable, totally engrossing novel explores love and heartbreak, science and belief, centring on the most marvellous heroine – the unconventional, super-smart Elizabeth Zott.
Zott has a troubled family history. Her dad was a religious, tax-evading con man, her mother a serial divorcee, and both treated Elizabeth’s gay brother horrendously.
So the super-rational Zott has left behind their dubious beliefs to make a career for herself in groundbreaking scientific research.
Smart, cool-headed and pragmatic, she has a hard time accepting the status quo of sexist 1960s America. But while she’s battling the belittling beliefs of her fellow researchers and their abhorrent behaviour, she meets the brilliant fellow scientist Calvin Evans, and the chemistry between them is (almost) instant.
They adopt an ex-bomb disposal dog called Six-Thirty and set about falling head over heels in love.
But then disaster strikes. Now a single parent and fired from her lab, the intrepid Elizabeth reluctantly takes a job on a cookery show to make ends meet. But she unexpectedly becomes a star. Crisp and authoritative with a strictly scientific approach, she serves a nation of underappreciated women a generous helping of self-worth alongside her meticulously nutritional recipes.
Fizzing with righteous indignation at the era’s attitude to women, Garmus’s beautifully drawn characters, her polished, engaging prose and a hugely satisfying plot make for a glorious read.
Lessons In Chemistry is alight with warmth, wit and hard-won wisdom. Absolutely wonderful.
Moonlight And The Pearler’s Daughter
Lizzie Pook
Mantle, £14.99
Scorching heat, a hostile landscape, an unforgiving sea and a volatile Australian town in 1896 form an atmospheric setting for an adventure to test the mettle of any heroine.
But Eliza, 20, is more than capable of stepping up to the task. She’s lived in the inhospitable Bannin Bay for 10 years, survived the death of her vivacious mother, and watched her father and brother struggle to make a success of the dangerous deep sea diving pearl business that was meant to make their fortune.
Instead, they are saddled with debt, hampered by her brother’s opium addiction, and now the family boat has returned after 61 days at sea but her father is missing.
Her brother is tight-lipped about what happened, although rumours of murder and mutiny abound.
Eliza sets out to solve the mystery with the help of best friend Min, town newcomer Axel and the young, resourceful Knife who is also keeping secrets.
Corruption, racism, blackmail and murderous rage play their part in a perilous, richly imagined story as Eliza learns the truth about her father and her own unquenchable spirit in a thrilling read.
Good Intentions
Kasim Ali 4th
Estate, £14.99
Kasim Ali’s romantic, bittersweet debut dives into the tangled complications of love and obligation.
Nur meets Yasmina at his ex-girlfriend’s party. Yasmina is funny and smart, and the pair immediately click. Nur is so drawn to Yasmina that his habitual dithering is banished for the sake of romance. His loving family’s concerns are less easily dismissed.
Pakistani Muslim Nur fears his family won’t accept Yasmina because, although she’s Muslim, she’s black. So he keeps their lovely, sustaining relationship a secret for four long years and although Yasmina initially accepts the situation, she becomes more uneasy over time.
Nur is loveable and exasperating in equal measure, a mixed-up mess of emotions, doubts and divided loyalties. As he ponders whether to tell his family the truth, agonising over what the future holds for him and Yasmina, it makes for an incredibly powerful read.
Ali lays bare Nur’s thoughts and feelings with such clear-eyed honesty that it’s impossible not to feel wholly invested in the outcome of the couple’s story in this compassionate, compelling debut.
Peach Blossom Spring
Melissa Fu
Wildfire, £16.99
This Radio 2 Book Club choice is a gorgeous sweep of a novel following the fortunes of widow Meilin and her four-year-old son Renshu as they attempt to escape an encroaching war.
Opening in 1938 in China, the pair’s comfortable life is upended as Japan begins a bombing campaign in Changsha, their hometown. As the city burns, Meilin flees with her son and they embark on an epic journey that will take them across the country, on foot and by boat, as they seek shelter and safety in a world full of danger.
Accompanying them on their treacherous journey is a treasured scroll illustrated with pictures of ancient fables, and Meilin spins out these ancient stories to comfort her son on their harrowing journey.
The novel also unspools like a scroll, unfurling as miles are covered and years pass, and their lives find a measure of stability.
Tender and graceful, this vivid historical novel shows the cost of war while celebrating the resilience of the human spirit and the life-affirming gifts of storytelling.
The School For Good Mothers
Jessamine Chan
Hutchinson Heinemann, £12.99
In this sinister slice of American dystopian fiction, Frida Lui, 39, is raw from a recent separation from husband Gust and attempting to keep her career on track despite sleepless nights with their 18-month-old daughter Harriet.
Skewed by exhaustion, she makes a bad decision. She leaves her daughter home alone while she heads into the office to retrieve a file and pick up a coffee.
But a sinister social services machine swings into action. Reported by a neighbour, Frida comes under surveillance, with cameras installed in her home and her every action monitored. Harriet is sent to live with Gust and Frida’s access to her child is limited.
Deemed non-compliant, she is sent away to be “re-educated” alongside other “bad” mothers. They practise mothering skills on robot dolls while repeating the mantra “I am a bad mother, but I am learning to be good” until they become entirely selfless parents.
Propulsive and provocative, if a little overblown, it’s guaranteed to start conversations about motherhood, government overreach and the ties that bind.