Debut Fall Fiction 2024Like this list

18 items

• Black Butterflies

  Morris, Priscilla (College teacher),

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  A timeless story of strife and hope set during the conflict in the Balkans in the early ’90s—a searing debut novel about a woman who faces the war on her doorstep with courage, fierceness, and an unshakable belief in the power of art.

• Songs for the Brokenhearted

  a Novel

  Tsabari, Ayelet, 1973-

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  A young Yemeni Israeli woman learns of her mother’s secret romance in a dramatic journey through lost family stories, revealing the unbreakable bond between a mother and a daughter—the debut novel of an award-winning literary voice.

• Fear the Flames

  a Novel

  Darling, Olivia Rose,

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  An exiled princess teams up with the last man she thought she could trust in the start of a dazzling and unforgettable epic fantasy romance series.

• The Teller of Small Fortunes

  Leong, Julie,

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  A wandering fortune teller finds an unexpected family in this warm and wonderful debut fantasy.

• Olive Days

  a Novel

  Emerson, Jessica Elisheva,

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  A smoldering debut novel about a young mother in an Orthodox Jewish community of Los Angeles whose quest for authenticity erupts in a passionate affair following a night of wife swapping.

• Showmance

  Beguelin, Chad, 1969-

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  A down-on-his-luck Broadway playwright is marooned in rural Illinois in this sharply funny queer rom-com.

• Whale Fall

  O'Connor, Elizabeth, 1991-

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  A stunning debut from an award-winning writer, about loss, isolation, folklore, and the joy and dissonance of finding oneself by exploring life outside one’s community.

• Love Can't Feed You

  a Novel

  Sy, Cherry Lou,

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  A beautiful, tender yet searing debut novel about intergenerational fractures and coming of age, following a young woman who immigrates to the United States from the Philippines and finds herself adrift between familial expectations and her own…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Death in the Air

  a Novel

  Murali, Ram,

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  The White Lotus meets Knives Out meets Crazy Rich Asians in this devilishly entertaining debut novel: both a sophisticated locked-room mystery in the tradition of Agatha Christie, and a provocative literary whodunit for the twenty-first century.

• Wild and Distant Seas

  a Novel

  Roberts, Tara Karr,

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  A gorgeous debut, laced through with magic, following four generations of women as they seek to chart their own futures.

• Nightwatching

  Sierra, Tracy,

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  A mother is forced to the breaking point when her life and the lives of her children are threatened by an intruder.

• Greta & Valdin

  Reilly, Rebecca K.,

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  n irresistible, “generous, [and] tender” (The New York Times) international bestseller that follows a brother and sister as they navigate queerness, multiracial identity, and family drama, all while flailing their way to love—for fans of Schitt’s…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Daughters of Shandong

  Chung, Eve J.

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  A propulsive, extraordinary novel about a mother and her daughters’ harrowing escape to Taiwan as the Communist revolution sweeps through China, by debut author Eve J. Chung, based on her family story.

• The Mayor of Maxwell Street

  Cunningham, Avery,

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  When a rich Black debutante enlists the help of a low-level speakeasy manager to identify the head of an underground crime syndicate, the two are thrust into the dangerous world of Prohibition-era Chicago.

• Victim

  a Novel

  Boryga, Andrew,

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  There’s a fine line between bending the truth and telling bald-faced lies, and Javier Perez is willing to cross it.

• The Things We Didn't Know

  Pérez, Elba Iris,

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  The USA TODAY bestselling inaugural winner of Simon & Schuster’s Books Like Us contest, Elba Iris Pérez’s lyrical and “wonderfully compelling” (Judith Simon Prager, author of What the Dolphin Said) cross-cultural coming-of-age debut novel explores a…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Storm We Made

  a Novel

  Chan, Vanessa (Novelist),

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  A novel about a Malayan mother who becomes an unlikely spy for the invading Japanese forces during WWII—and the shocking consequences that rain upon her community and family.

• I Hope This Finds You Well

  a Novel

  Sue, Natalie,

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  Crackling with laugh-out-loud dialogue and relatable observations, I Hope This Finds You Well is a fresh and surprisingly tender comedy about loneliness and love beyond our computer screens.