News and Interviews Icon side arrow

42 New and Upcoming Debut Novels for Your Reading Radars

Posted by Cybil on May 1, 2025

Each year brings a new cohort of debut authors to bookshelves worldwide. It’s great for those of us who like to discover new authors. As it happens, there’s a veritable tidal wave of interesting first novels cresting just now. In our ongoing effort to sort the world itself, Goodreads’ editorial staffers have once more waded into the stacks to try to make sense of it all.

Each of the books below is a debut novel publishing in the U.S. from May until September. The range of this collection is pretty amazing, really. You’ll find a good selection of contemporary and literary fiction below, plus new additions to all the usual-suspect genres—mystery, romance, sci-fi, fantasy, historical fiction, and some particularly interesting horror.

We’ve got books about stand-up comedy and immortality. Books about growing up queer in the 1990s and growing old peacefully in Sweden. Books about international abductions and interdimensional libraries. Lycanthropes in England and hedge fund managers in trouble. A dog named Curtains and a tumor named Maggie. Oh, and the devil.

We’ve included the current U.S. publication date for each, and you can click on the book cover images to get more details about each title.

The Original Daughter
by Jemimah Wei

San Francisco Bay Area author Jemimah Wei follows two sisters growing up in working-class Singapore around the turn of the millennium. (Yes, the most recent one.) Arin and Genevieve Yang are under tremendous family pressure to pursue academic perfection at all costs. No friends. No life. No fun. After a terrible betrayal drives them apart, the sisters begin to question the modern cultural obsession with efficiency, achievement, and winning at all costs.

Publication date: May 6

The Names
by Florence Knapp

What’s in a name? That’s the fascinating rhetorical question at the heart of this innovative novel from London author Florence Knapp. The book tells one family’s story via three alternating and parallel narratives, with each thread following the child’s life under a different name. Knapp’s novel spans 35 years and explores issues of family dynamics, domestic abuse, and the slow but steady power of healing.

Publication date: May 6

Old School Indian
by Aaron John Curtis

Abe Jacobs is dying. At age 43, his doctors have given him the worst kind of news. So Abe is headed back to the Ahkwesáhsne reservation to meet with his great uncle, a healer of some renown. Budge Billings, a tough old recovering alcoholic, is decidedly unsentimental about his gifts (and Abe’s chances). But who knows what the future holds? This buzzy debut from author Aaron John Curtis presents a coming-of-middle-age story with wit and wisdom.

Publication date: May 6

Sleep
by Honor Jones

In another kind of homecoming story, author Honor Jones’ debut follows a recently divorced mom returning to her childhood house—with her own daughters in tow. Margaret is determined to be the parent she never really had, but returning home has triggered old memories and vivid flashbacks. Can she be a mother to her daughters and a daughter to her mother, all at the same time? Under the same roof? Sleep digs deep into the loving chaos of family and the essential tyranny of adulthood.

Publication date: May 13

Happiness Forever
by Adelaide Faith

Sylvie’s life is OK. She’s got a good-enough job as a veterinary nurse and, not coincidentally, a slightly brain-damaged dog at home named Curtains. Also, she’s in love with her therapist. But that’s normal, right? The debut novel from author Adelaide Faith follows one fragile woman as life takes a hard turn…and a new world opens up. Advance readers are praising the book’s quirky charm and its essential message: People need people, and we all deserve happiness.

Publication date: May 13

Awake in the Floating City
by Susanna Kwan

Continuing the recent parade of foreboding eco-fiction, this debut novel from author Susanna Kwan flashes forward to a flooded San Francisco where only the helpless, the devoted, and the stubborn remain. Our narrator, an artist turned caregiver named Bo, bonds with a 130-year-old woman who remembers the grand history of the city. Kwan’s story contemplates the future, the past, and the eternal wisdom of staying in the moment.

Publication date: May 13

The Devil Three Times
by Rickey Fayne

Squarely in the tradition of oral folk tales and magical realism, this intriguing debut from author Rickey Fayne begins 175 years ago, aboard a slave ship headed to the American South. On that hellish journey, it seems that the devil himself paid a visit to a young woman named Yetunde—and he’s been dropping in on her family ever since. Fayne’s ambitious novel spans eight generations as the devil visits Yetunde’s descendants with a series of dubious propositions.

Publication date: May 13

What Will People Think?
by Sara Hamdan

Sara Hamdan’s rollicking coming-of-age story introduces Mia Almas, a wallflower office worker who blooms by night at New York City’s underground comedy clubs. Her conservative Arab family would surely be scandalized by her comedy act, so Mia has to keep it all on the down-low. So it’s especially weird when a family scandal from the 1940s suddenly comes to light. Oh, and Mia’s having a strictly forbidden affair with her boss, too. This is the trouble with having an interesting life. It’s stressful.

Publication date: May 20

Aftertaste
by Daria Lavelle

Aspiring New York City chef Konstantin Duhovny has a unique psychic gift—he can taste the presence of ghosts. He can also reunite family members with their departed loved ones, so long as he cooks for them both. Author Daria Lavelle’s innovative debut promises to be a kind of synesthetic experience in itself, crossing evocative food writing with family drama, percolating romance, and gritty details from New York City’s hyperactive culinary scene.

Publication date: May 20

The Bombshell
by Darrow Farr

Kidnapped and held for ransom by European political activists, headstrong teenager Severine Guimard decides to make the best of things. Befriending her abductors on the Mediterranean isle of Corsica, she begins to find their arguments rather persuasive. Soon she’s making international headlines, which isn’t all bad. Youthful exuberance meets Marxist ideology in the age of viral celebrity. Good times! Author Darrow Fair has all the juicy details.

Publication date: May 27

The Slip
by Lucas Schaefer

This debut from author Lucas Schaefer has the overall shape of a mystery novel: A teenage boxer in Texas goes missing just as his life is starting to blossom. Ten years later, the boy’s uncle gets a tip and launches an investigation. But within that general shape, author Schaefer colors way outside the lines, introducing elements of heart, humor, queer romance, race relations, and the metaphorical resonance of the sweet science.

Publication date: June 3

A Family Matter
by Claire Lynch

In 2022, an old man named Heron is unable to tell his only child about the terrible diagnosis he just got from his doctor. In 1982, a young mother finds love and connection with another woman, flipping her world into a spiral. Toggling between these two stories, author Claire Lynch delivers a richly layered novel about heartbreak, healing, and the very personal effects of changing societal conditions. Early reader reviews suggest that this one hits you right in the heart.

Publication date: June 3

Notes on Infinity
by Austin Taylor

Harvard students Zoe and Jack have just hit the biotech jackpot—an anti-aging drug that could change the course of history. Dropping out and launching a startup company, the partners are rocketed into the dizzying heights of fortune and sudden, overwhelming fame. What can possibly go wrong? Author Austin Taylor plumbs the treacherous depths of American ambition, 21st-century biotechnology, and the still-unsolved complexities of human relations.

Publication date: June 3

The Phoenix Pencil Company
by Allison King

In what may be this year’s most fascinating debut premise, Massachusetts author Allison King presents a multigenerational saga featuring an online recluse and Chinese espionage in World War II. It seems that shy computer coder Monica Tsai has inherited her family ancestral ability to Reforge pencils, retrieving memories across time and space. The story involves Monica’s 90-year-old grandparents, a pencil factory in Shanghai, and some thoughts about the magic of storytelling itself.

Publication date: June 3

Endling
by Maria Reva

The year’s other most fascinating debut story comes from Ukrainian Canadian author Maria Reva. The gist: Sisters Nastia and Solomiya are undercover activists in Ukraine’s shadowy “marriage tourism” industry, where Western bachelors seek docile brides unburdened by, you know, feminism. Teaming with a rogue biologist Yeva, the three women embark on a mad quest to find the sisters’ missing mom while protecting Lefty, a beloved and last-of-his-kind garden snail. Then the Russians invade.

Publication date: June 3

Great Black Hope
by Rob Franklin

Arrested for cocaine possession, a well-off Stanford student named Smith finds himself spiraling through the shadows of New York City’s nightlife scene. That’s the setup for author Rob Franklin’s bold debut, but the book has more complex themes in mind. Smith comes from a family of doctors and lawyers. But he’s also Black and queer. How does the justice system handle this combination? Rob Franklin’s book explores the unforgiving gray areas among class and race, privilege and peril, criminal law and court-mandated recovery rooms.

Publication date: June 10

Foreclosure Gothic
by Harris Lahti

Impressionistic and autobiographical, Harris Lahti’s debut novel mixes elements of the gothic horror story (American gothic, to be precise) with a visual presentation incorporating spooky black-and-white photographs. The storyline follows three men in the Greener family as they try to realize the American dream of happy domesticity. Also in play: open questions about modern masculinity, artistic ambition, menacing tenants, and uncanny phenomena.

Publication date: June 10

The Marriage Vendetta
by Caroline Madden

A domestic thriller with a different kind of spin, The Marriage Vendetta invites readers to ponder the intriguing concept of the psychopathic marriage counselor. Eliza Sheridan is at the end of her rope and ready to file for divorce. But then her therapist, Ms. Early, proposes a series of increasingly bizarre acts designed to “retrain” Eliza’s husband. How far will Ms. Early go? How far will Eliza go? Underneath it all, author Caroline Madden poses the sinister unsaid question: How far would you go, gentle reader?

Publication date: June 10

UnWorld
by Jayson Greene

Set about five minutes into our collective and unnerving future, the debut novel from Jayson Greene imagines a world where hyper-accelerated technology has blurred the lines between man and machine, the real and the virtual. Among the central characters is a digital entity uploaded from the sense memories of another person. But Greene’s real topics here are older and stronger: grief, death, and the power of love. Interested readers might want to check out his devastating 2019 memoir, Once More We Saw Stars.

Publication date: June 17

Girls Girls Girls
by Shoshana von Blanckensee

Besides having the coolest name ever, Shoshana von Blanckensee has delivered an intimate coming-of-age story with Girls Girls Girls, a novel about growing up queer in the 1990s. Hannah and her girlfriend, Sam, have just arrived in the gay-friendly environs of San Francisco. While they’re thrilled to be able to live and love openly with other queer folk, they soon find that West Coast living has its own set of challenges. Choices are made and things get complicated.

Publication date: June 17

How to Dodge a Cannonball
by Dennard Dayle

And now for something completely different: Dennard Dayle’s historical Civil War satire charts the adventures of Anders, a directionless white teenager who joins a Black regiment of soldiers at Gettysburg. Dayle’s satirical volleys take aim at all targets within range—war profiteers, Anders’ own naivete, and the lethal absurdity of war itself. But just underneath is the story of a boy who finds a family and a version of America worth fighting for. Also: practical tips on how to dodge cannonballs. Might come in handy, you never know.

Publication date: June 17

Among Friends
by Hal Ebbott

With his debut novel, Among Friends, author Hal Ebbott is being heralded as a new voice in literary fiction. The story centers on a New York country house, where two closely intertwined families plan to celebrate a birthday weekend. But when envy and resentment spark a terrible turn of events, both families are plunged into chaos. Early readers are praising Ebbott’s elegant writing, intimate characterizations, and overall atmosphere of slow-burn suspense.

Publication date: June 24

Hot Girls with Balls
by Benedict Nguyễn

Sometimes a book title comes down the pike that just demands attention. Such is the case with this clever and nervy debut novel from New York City author Benedict Nguyễn, which charts the competitive heat between two Asian American trans women in the volleyball match of the year. Nguyễn’s playful satire tackles everything from sports celebrity to social media, boy’s club dynamics to girlboss politics, romantic jealousy to PR damage control. Also on tap: hot volleyball action.

Publication date: July 1

Archive of Unknown Universes
by Ruben Reyes Jr.

For the adventurous reader, Archive of Unknown Universes is a genre-agnostic hybrid of historical fiction, sci-fi, war chronicle, and dual love stories. With action in 2018 Massachusetts and 1978 Havana, the book’s swirling story revolves around the Defractor, an experimental device for glimpsing alternate realities and versions of the past. Author Ruben Reyes Jr. made a name for himself with last year’s short story collection There Is a Rio Grande in Heaven.

Publication date: July 1

Finding Grace
by Loretta Rothschild

Built around a twisty love story—and a devastating moral dilemma—Finding Grace traces the consequences of a shocking event that changes one family’s ultimate trajectory forever. Early readers are digging the book’s plot turns and advising newcomers to avoid any story spoilers. But it’s safe to day that author Loretta Rothschild has delivered a complex family drama via dual timelines and at least one uncomfortable thesis question: Can love really conquer all?

Publication date: July 8

Bring the House Down
by Charlotte Runcie

Hayley Sinclair has just premiered her solo show at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Afterward, she enjoys a one-night stand with theater critic Alex Lyons. So imagine Hayley’s surprise when she reads the next day’s paper to find a brutal one-star review of her show…from Alex. Sensibly, Hayley revamps her show into a tell-all, and the whole thing goes viral. It’s a delicious story premise, and author Charlotte Runcie leverages the action to explore nuanced ideas concerning art, cultural criticism, and sexual ethics.

Publication date: July 8

The Other Wife
by Jackie Thomas-Kennedy

Employing intimate first-person narration, Jackie Thomas-Kennedy takes readers behind the eyes of Susan “Zuzu” Braeburn, a seemingly successful lawyer with an ocean of regrets. Zuzu’s crisis is causing her to rethink decisions all the way back to childhood, through college, and into her current marriage to her wife, Agnes. Author Thomas-Kennedy delivers a deeply thoughtful character portrait built around flashbacks, introspection, and the eternal complexity of the human condition.

Publication date: July 15

A Resistance of Witches
by Morgan Ryan

Wow, this one looks like fun: Morgan Ryan’s historical fantasy debut follows the World War II adventures of Lydia Polk, a British witch tasked with retrieving a powerful magical tome before it falls into the clutches of the Nazis. It seems Hitler has his own occult strike team of German witches, and things get weird as the action plays out in the heart of occupied France. Oh, and one more dilemma: The sentient book has an agenda of its own. How fun is that? Answer: super fun.

Publication date: July 15

Mayra
by Nicky Gonzalez

If you’re in the market for a variation on the Southern Gothic horror story, check out this intriguing specimen from Florida author Nicky Gonzalez. Ingrid and Mayra, childhood friends from a Cuban neighborhood outside Miami, reunite for a weekend getaway in the Everglades. In a very creepy house in a very creepy swamp, Ingrid begins to wonder about Mayra as time and space start to bend and warp. You know reunions with old friends can get awkward? Imagine a worst-case scenario. With ghosts. And alligators.

Publication date: July 22

Maggie; or, A Man and a Woman Walk into a Bar
by Katie Yee

Katie Yee’s debut novel is dedicated to that artful maneuver that some people can pull off: turning sudden tragedy into defiant comedy (or at least gentle humor). The book’s unnamed narrator has just received a cancer diagnosis when she finds out her husband is having an affair. Unsure whether to laugh or cry, she begins by naming her tumor after the Other Woman. Similar gestures of wit and resilience follow. Pretty cool. Recommended for readers of Nora Ephron or Joan Is Okay.

Publication date: July 22

Lonely Crowds
by Stephanie Wambugu

Outsiders Ruth and Maria are desperate to escape the confines of their New England Catholic girls’ school. Maria is a Panamanian orphan whose mother died by suicide. Ruth is the child of immigrants from a cold and troubled home. Their journey together—through college and into the glamorous New York City art world—forms the spine of this literary debut novel from New York City author Stephanie Wambugu.

Publication date: July 29

When the Cranes Fly South
by Lisa Ridzén, translated by Alice Menzies

Newly translated into English, Lisa Ridzén’s remarkable debut novel has already won an adoring readership and a shelf full of awards in Sweden. Tightly focused and detailed, the book follows the last days of one elderly man’s life as he reflects upon his past, present, and vanishing future. Also: the precious companionship of his faithful elkhound. Goodreads members’ early reader reviews on this one are glowing and melancholy at the same time. Remember to hug your dog.

Publication date: August 5

The Hounding
by Xenobe Purvis

Speaking of the canine spirit, author Xenobe Purvis takes readers back to 18th-century England with a debut that blends elements of horror, mystery, and historical fiction. Villagers in the hamlet of Little Nettlebed are used to strange occurrences. But no one is sure what to do with the latest rumor: It seem that the Mansfield family girls are transforming into hounds. Underneath the slow-boil spookiness, author Purvis has some observations about convention, conformity, and unusual little girls.

Publication date: August 5

Loved One
by Aisha Muharrar

Gabe was Julia’s first teenage love, then her best friend, then a painful absence in her life. As such, the feelings are immense when Julia attends his funeral, 12 years later. There she meets Elizabeth, Gabe’s most recent ex. A delicate relationship develops as the two women try to piece together their memories of the man they loved. Aisha Muharrar’s debut novel braids mystery elements into a story of love, grief, friendship, and the tyranny of time.

Publication date: August 12

Ghost Fish
by Stuart Pennebaker

Alone and lonely in a grim apartment on New York City’s Lower East Side, 23-year-old Alison is drowning in grief from the loss of her little sister. After a shocking encounter with the uncanny, Alison is gifted with a new perspective on her life and her future. Just like it says on the tin, this poignant debut novel from author Stuart Pennebaker features a ghost fish. But Pennebaker’s urban fable, steeped in the traditions of magical realism, reveals a deeper story of love and loss in the city.

Publication date: August 5

My Other Heart
by Emma Nanami Strenner

Revelations are at the heart of this debut novel from author Emma Nanami Strenner, who situates her story somewhere in the notional spaces between East and West and wherever we call “home.” Sabrina is the child of a strict Chinese single mom. Kit is the adopted half-Japanese, half-American daughter of two wealthy and white parents. In the summer after high school graduation, the friends encounter a stranger with a disturbing story…from 17 years ago.

Publication date: August 5

Hollow Spaces
by Victor Suthammanont

Told in alternating timelines, Victor Suthammanont’s mystery-thriller begins 30 years ago, when John Lo—the only Asian American attorney at his prestigious law firm—is put on trial for murder. Three decades later, John’s two estranged children reunite to reinvestigate the crime. With Hollow Spaces, author Suthammanont wraps his murder mystery with observations about family loyalty, professional ambition, racial issues, and corporate culture.

Publication date: August 5

These Memories Do Not Belong to Us
by Yiming Ma

Yiming Ma’s debut sci-fi thriller introduces readers to an alarming future vision: In the one-world authoritarian government known as Qin, all citizens are fitted with a Mindbank, a skull implant that allows for monitoring, recording, and transferring memories. When one man inherits his mother’s Mindbank, he gains access to memories from the time before the global war that put Qin on top. But have her memories been modified? Have his? Ma’s debut looks like a delightful fable for the post-truth era.

Publication date: August 12

The Unbroken Coast
by Nalini Jones

In 1978, in a tiny fishing village just outside of Mumbai, India, Professor Francis Almeida encounters a young mother praying for her baby daughter, who is dangerously ill with dengue fever. Ten years later, the child and the professor meet again when an accident brings their respective families together. Nalini Jones, author of the short fiction collection What You Call Winter, tells the story of a little girl and an aging historian, each with something to teach the other.

Publication date: August 12

The Book of Lost Hours
by Hayley Gelfuso

Fans of thoughtful speculative fiction will want to consider Hayley Gelfuso’s debut, an inventive historical fantasy novel that tinkers with the mechanics of time-space itself. Beginning on the evening of Kristallnacht in 1938, the story weaves through various eras of recent history and introduces the time space—an extradimensional nexus where memories are stored in books. There’s some contemporary resonance here, too, concerning truth and deception and those who would rewrite history.

Publication date: August 12

Leverage
by Amran Gowani

It’s a pickle, all right: Hedge fund manager Ali “Al” Jafar has just lost $300 million for his notoriously unforgiving billionaire boss. So Al is given a choice: Recover the money in three months, by any means necessary, or get framed as the fall guy for the government’s looming insider-trading investigation. Debut author Amran Gowani, a former Wall Street analyst, spins an anxious and darkly funny thriller about money, race, and the abiding truism that finance guys play rough.

Publication date: August 19

Dust Settles North
by Deena ElGenaidi

In the middle of the Arab Spring uprisings, siblings Hannah and Zain reunite in Cairo to try and fix their severely broken family. Hannah recently gave up her studies at Columbia Law School to return to Egypt. Zain remained in America and is encircling the drain of a terminal downward spiral. Brooklyn author Deena ElGenaidi profiles two young adults as they uncover some old secrets and navigate change on the micro and macro levels.

Publication date: September 30

Like · 151 likes