From Special Topics in Calamity Physics, to The Time Travelers Wife (and of course, The Help!), many of my favorite novels from recent years are debuts. It’s so exciting to pick up a book from a fresh voice… and I always think—will this one become a hit?
It seems that this week has been good to new authors, as two debut novels will make a very exciting debut—on the New York Times’ best-selling Hardcover Fiction list. Danielle Trussoni’s Angelology, which we blogged about a few weeks ago, comes in at #7. Helen Simonson’s Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand is #14. (The list will be published in print on March 28.)
In BookPage, Linda White described the reaction readers will have to Simonson’s novel, set in an English village: “You’ll laugh, you’ll wipe away a tear or two and you certainly will enjoy time spent with Major Pettigrew.”
In her behind-the-book essay on Angelology, Trussoni described what readers can expect in her debut:
You will enter a secluded convent nestled next to a wide, mirror-dark river; you will climb into a narrow gorge cut deep into the granite of an Eastern European mountain; and you will sit in a shadowy lecture hall filled with students during the Second World War. You will meet a young woman named Evangeline, whose family history has drawn her into a centuries-old hidden society of scholars who practice the ancient discipline of angelology, the theological study of angels. You will become acquainted with nuns; a handsome art historian named Verlaine who rushes into Evangeline’s quiet world and changes her life; and a nefarious group of angels called Nephilim.
If you had to choose between nefarious angels or the “hazards of English country life,” what would it be?
Have you read a good debut lately?
Trisha, thanks for bringing my poor little review to the fore! It’s a book that deserves some talk about it. I posted this on my FB and Twitter, so hopefully you’ll get lots of hits! This is one book review that I really enjoyed doing.
I like all the posts on fiction and related topics
The Sky Is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson and Twenty Boy Summer by Sarah Ockler. Both books are YA books, however, I really think anyone could relate to them no matter how old they are. And if you do have teenage children, like I do, these books are a great way to open the lines of communication about subjects that should be discussed. Both of these authors will definitely be placed on my list of favorite authors. Their writing styles are amazing. You should definitely check them out. I really don’t think you would be disappointed if you did.