7 highly anticipated debut novels to check out this spring
It’s shaping up to be yet another busy season for publishers and bookworms, with the next few months bringing new novels by literary stalwarts like Karen Russell, Colson Whitehead and Brian Evenson.
But there are quite a few neophytes hoping to make a splash with their first novels too, so if you’re looking for a brand-new voice, you’re in luck. Here are seven debut novels just published or coming out this spring to check out:
“White Elephant” by Julie Langsdorf, Ecco, 320 pages, $26.99, out now
If you’ve spent any time on the social media website Nextdoor, you know that neighborhoods are teeming with quiet (and sometimes not so quiet) resentments and bitter turf wars. The debut comic novel from Washington, D.C., author Julie Langsdorf focuses on residents of a suburb locked in an angry fight about the construction of a new large house that some neighbors find too gaudy for their tastes.
“Lights All Night Long” by Lydia Fitzpatrick, Penguin, 352 pages, $27, out now
Los Angeles writer Lydia Fitzpatrick’s first novel has drawn praise from fellow authors Anthony Marra and R.O. Kwon. It tells the story of a young Russian exchange student in Louisiana intent on proving the innocence of his older brother, who has been falsely implicated in the murders of three women in their hometown.
“The Ash Family” by Molly Dektar, Simon & Schuster, 352 pages, $26, out now
North Carolina-born Molly Dektar sets her first novel in her home state, following a young woman named Berie who joins an “intentional community” in the mountains. Things seem to go well at first until people she befriends at the farm start to go missing.
“The Unpassing” by Chia-Chia Lin, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 288 pages, $26, May 7
Bay Area author Chia-Chia Lin has drawn praise for her debut novel, which tells the story of a family of immigrants from Taiwan living in Anchorage. When one of their children dies of meningitis and the father is sued over a near-fatal plumbing accident, the family struggles to stay together in the face of tragedy. “Riots I Have Known” by Ryan Chapman, Simon & Schuster, 128 pages, $24, May 21
The editor of a prison literary magazine attempts to explain how he’s not responsible for a jailhouse riot in this comic debut from New York author Ryan Chapman. Sam Lipsyte called the novel “tender, cruel, profane, wildly inventive and, finally, unforgettable.”
“In West Mills,” De’Shawn Charles Winslow, Bloomsbury, 272 pages, $26, June 4
Set in mid-20th-century North Carolina, the first novel from New York author De’Shawn Charles Winslow tells the story of the friendship between Azalea “Knot” Centre, a free-spirited woman, and her neighbor Otis Lee, a man dealing with problems in his own family.
“On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous” by Ocean Vuong, Penguin, 256 pages, June 4
One of the most anticipated books of the year is this debut novel from critically acclaimed poet Ocean Vuong, which takes the form of a son’s letter to his illiterate mother about their family’s history and his own life. Author Marlon James praised the novel as “a powerful testimony to magic and loss.” HARDCOVER NONFICTION 1. “Life Will Be the Death of Me: ... and you too!” by Chelsea Handler (Spiegel & Grau, $27)