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70 New 2025 Debut Novels to Discover Now
For bookworms of a certain intensity, one of the most rewarding reading experiences is discovering a favorite new author.
This collection is designed to help with that noble objective. We’ve gathered below 70 new debut novels that have arrived in 2025. All of the books here have U.S. publication dates between January and early August.
You’ll find books here from all the usual genres—contemporary fiction, historical fiction, mystery, romance, sci-fi, fantasy, horror—plus several that straddle multiple categories or resist genre altogether.
Books about uplifting friendships in Ukraine and downward spirals in the Hamptons. Robotic siblings in a future Korea and undercover witches in World War II–occupied France. Detroit in the 1960s and sentient blobs in love.
Click on the book cover images for more details about each title. If you think you’ve found your new author, use that Want to Read button to place the book on your personal to-do shelf.
This collection is designed to help with that noble objective. We’ve gathered below 70 new debut novels that have arrived in 2025. All of the books here have U.S. publication dates between January and early August.
You’ll find books here from all the usual genres—contemporary fiction, historical fiction, mystery, romance, sci-fi, fantasy, horror—plus several that straddle multiple categories or resist genre altogether.
Books about uplifting friendships in Ukraine and downward spirals in the Hamptons. Robotic siblings in a future Korea and undercover witches in World War II–occupied France. Detroit in the 1960s and sentient blobs in love.
Click on the book cover images for more details about each title. If you think you’ve found your new author, use that Want to Read button to place the book on your personal to-do shelf.
Runner-up for our unofficial Most Compelling Book Title award, Ruben Reyes Jr.’s Archive of Unknown Universes is a genre-bending hybrid of historical fiction, sci-fi, war chronicle, and dual love stories—with action in 2018 Massachusetts and 1978 Havana. At the center of it all: the Defractor, an experimental device for glimpsing alternate versions of the past.
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!
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. Author Loretta Rothschild asks the uncomfortable questions: Do we keep our secrets, or let them go? Does the past always determine the future? Can love really conquer all?
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.
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.
Irish author Aisling Rawle conjures a deeply unnerving future vision with her debut novel, The Compound, which imagines life on the set of a reality-television show in a near-future dystopia. Ten beautiful young women compete for prizes—and the imminent arrival of 10 beautiful young men—as the world outside descends into political and environmental chaos. Performance culture critique? Consumerist satire? Or a simple, sober assessment of what’s next?
Set in the Province of Carolina circa 1710, author Markus Redmond’s ambitious alternate-history horror novel delivers an entirely new take on the vampire origin story. A desperate slave family is offered a path to liberation when they encounter the last scion of an ancient African vampire clan. Soon enough, a vast rebellion is underway and an army of “blood slaves” stands poised to change the course of history.
Winner of this collection’s Most Compelling Book Title award, Hot Girls with Balls charts the competitive heat between “Six” and “Green,” two Asian American trans women in the volleyball match of the year. Benedict Nguyễn’s playful satire tackles everything from sports celebrity to social media, romantic jealousy to girlboss politics. Also: hot volleyball action.
Recommended for readers of Nora Ephron or Joan Is Okay, Katie Yee’s debut novel is dedicated to the art of turning sudden tragedy into defiant comedy—or at least the grace of gentle humor. The book’s narrator has to make some choices when she faces marital breakup just before a cancer diagnosis. Her remedies include Chinese folklore and naming her tumor after the Other Woman. Good thinking.
The debut novel from Croatian author Lidija Hilje spans 20 years in the life of a young woman caught in the clockwork gears of a newly developing society. Ivona was an idealistic student in the hopeful early years of democratic Croatia. Things are different now, for Ivona and her country both. As she cares for her ailing father, Ivona contemplates the enduring power—and the practical limitations—of courage, resilience, and love.
If you’re in the market for an expansive, inspiring, ground-level love story, consider this literary romance from British Jamaican author Lisa Smith. Set in 1980s South London, the story follows the relationship between two transplanted Jamaican families in the U.K. When romance blooms between the introverted Daphne and the outgoing Connie, Smith’s story blossoms out to include themes of class, race, immigration policy, found families, and true love.
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 getting started. 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.
Two young people in Beijing encounter the perennial complexities of life and love in Claire Jia’s debut novel, Wanting. Twentysomething Ye Lian has made all the right choices in life, if “right” equals “practical.” But when her childhood friend Luo Wenyu returns to Beijing from California, he brings new questions, new options, and—as it happens—a good deal of trouble. The trouble with getting what you want, as always, is figuring out exactly what it is.
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's 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.
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.
What happens when a Black and queer Stanford graduate student gets busted for cocaine in the Hamptons? Nothing good, turns out. Author Rob Franklin takes readers from the shadows of New York City nightlife to a homecoming in Atlanta, with detours into tragic deaths and missing friends. Great Black Hope explores the unforgiving liminal spaces among class and race, privilege and peril, criminal law and court-mandated recovery rooms.
Zoe and Jack, partners in every sense of the word, have just dropped out of Harvard to pilot their new startup company. The product: an anti-aging drug that promises virtual immortality. What can possibly go wrong? Debut author Austin Taylor plumbs the treacherous depths of American ambition, 21st-century biotechnology, and young love. Pretty great book cover design, too.
A novel about mothers, daughters, and the essential tyranny of adulthood, Honor Jones’ debut introduces a recently divorced mom facing her radically new life. Circumstances have led Margaret back to her childhood home, with her daughters in tow. Amid painful flashbacks and new relationships, Margaret is determined to be the mother she never really had.
Author Daria Lavelle introduces one of the new year’s most flat-out fascinating ideas with the story of an aspiring New York City chef who discovers he can taste the presence of ghosts. This innovative debut novel promises to be a kind of synesthetic experience itself, crossing evocative food writing with family drama, percolating romance, and a new kind of ghost story.
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.
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?
Set about five minutes into our collective 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 the author's devastating 2019 memoir, Once More We Saw Stars.
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.
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.
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.
With his career taking off, and his wedding coming up, New York City violist Davis Freeman is looking forward to a happy new life. But when Davis gets word that his estranged father has died in a car accident, he’s forced to look backward at the most painful time possible. Harlem author Denne Michele Norris delivers a literary love story of a young Black gay man trying to keep his brand-new marriage together, even as he must process his own traumatic childhood.
In a reunified future Korea, three estranged siblings—two human, one robot—must confront their shared past on a journey from the corporate skyscrapers to the dark underbelly of Seoul. Author Silvia Park explores old cyberpunk tropes and decidedly new 21st-century issues concerning artificial life, societal caste systems, and the very nature of love. Oh, there’s a murder mystery, too.
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.
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.
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 how reunions with old friends can get awkward? Imagine a worst-case scenario. With ghosts. And alligators.
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 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.
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.
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.
Squarely in the tradition of oral folktales 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.
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.
Separated by war in 1940s Shanghai, teenage soulmates Haiwen and Suchi reluctantly go their separate ways. Sixty years later, Haiwen is bagging groceries in Los Angeles when a chance meeting changes everything. Acclaimed for her short fiction and essays, author Karissa Chen splits her time between New Jersey and Taipei and writes a pretty good author bio.
The Original Daughter spotlights two sisters growing up in working-class Singapore and pursuing academic perfection at all costs. No friends. No life. No fun. When a betrayal drives them apart, the sisters begin to question their cultural obsession with efficiency and achievement. San Francisco Bay Area author Jemimah Wei proposes a new riff on the tradition of the social novel.
What’s in a name? That’s the thesis question in this ambitious debut novel that begins with the moment a mother chooses the name of her child. From there, London author Florence Knapp tells three parallel stories—alternating chapter by chapter—with each thread following the child’s life with a different name. Early readers are loving the bold storytelling and life-affirming vibe.
Leaning into the more playful traditions of magical realism, debut author Maggie Su tells the story of a desperate 20-something and her quest to create the perfect boyfriend. Her story answers the age-old question: Can you find true love with a properly trained sentient blob? Underneath the weirdness, Su asks some tough questions about love, control, and racial marginalization.
This first novel from renowned playwright Betty Shamieh looks back in time to track three generations of women in a loving but complicated Palestinian American family. In the mix: a 35-year-old New York City theater director, Detroit in the 1960s, and some hard truths about war, lost love, and generational trauma. Bonus trivia: Author Shamieh has written 15 stage plays translated into seven languages.
Set in Nigeria and New Orleans, this ambitious debut novel follows the fate of a young family who arrive in America just as a historic hurricane threatens to destroy their new city. Author Olufunke Grace Bankole doubles back to explore mother-daughter relationships, Nigerian folklore, Yoruba Christianity, and the almost unbelievable courage at the core of the immigrant experience.
Check out the fabulous book cover art for a sense of the tone on this one. Neena Viel’s debut novel, Listen to Your Sister, tells the story of three desperate siblings and an extremely unfortunate cabin rental experience. With its blend of family drama and literary horror, the book is recommended for fans of Grady Hendrix, Tananarive Due, Stephen King, and Jordan Peele.
Brooklyn author and Alabama native Erin Crosby Eckstine is generating a wave of remarkable enthusiasm for her debut novel. Designed as a work of speculative historical fiction, the book follows enslaved teenager Junie as she makes a terrible discovery in the years just before the Civil War. Also in the narrative arc: the ghost of Junie’s sister Minnie, with secrets of her own from beyond the grave.
Based on his own family history, Charles B. Fancher’s Red Clay is an expansive, multigenerational saga of an enslaved Black family and their white owners in Red Clay, Alabama. Moving back and forth in time, from the last days of the Civil War to the early 1940s, the book traces the hope of Reconstruction as it decays into the horrors of the Jim Crow era.
Irish author Roisín O’Donnell brings deep empathy and terrible specificity to her debut novel of a young mother and two daughters fleeing an abusive home in Dublin. With nothing more than a bag full of clothes, Clara Fay must navigate abject poverty and a broken housing system as she raises two children in a hotel room—with her cruel husband in pursuit.
Do any of us ever love music as deeply as we did in our early 20s? That’s the rhetorical question in Holly Brickley’s debut novel, Deep Cuts, a love story with a built-in soundtrack. Music obsessive Percy Marks and songwriter Joe Morrow forge a personal and artistic relationship that winds up somewhere on the path to indie-rock stardom. Early readers are likening the vibe to Sally Rooney and Gabrielle Zevin.
Fictional author Cate Kay is remarkably successful, considering she doesn’t exist. Her real identity has been a necessary secret since a terrible tragedy, long ago. But all that is about to change. Actual author Kate Fagan, known for her literary sports writing, incorporates mystery elements and POV playfulness in a debut novel that’s being compared to The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo.
What’s the proper course of action when you’re a lefty activist and your husband is running for Congress as a Republican? The debut novel from New York Times books reporter Elizabeth Harris is a warm and witty exploration of life’s more complicated terrains—queer romance, sibling dynamics, and the ferocity of 21st-century American politics.
One of the year’s most intriguing debuts, Fundamentally is a dark comedy about a United Nations scholar who attempts to “rehabilitate” ISIS brides at an Iraqi refugee camp. Londoner Dr. Nadia Amin doesn’t have much luck with her deradicalization initiative, but she does have some rather startling adventures with an optimistic volunteer, a stubborn refugee, and a horny Frenchman.
Crush is the fiction debut from publishing veteran Ada Calhoun, who’s made the rounds a few times already with her nonfiction books and ghostwriting gigs. Her debut novel, inspired in part by hard experience, follows a married Gen X couple who decide to test the boundaries of marriage and desire in post-pandemic, midlife America. Quick recap: “The very best kind of hell breaks loose.”
When a massive earthquake levels Portland, Oregon, nine-months-pregnant Annie is crib shopping at the local Ikea. Trying to reach home on foot across the ruined city, Annie reflects on her unsteady marriage, ponders her uncertain future, and talks it out with her unborn child (nicknamed Garbanzo Bean). Author Emma Pattee delivers a groundbreaking (heh) hybrid of survival adventure and character portrait.
Billed as a true-to-life story, Sarah Damoff’s The Bright Years chronicles the dissolution and ultimate restoration of a Texas family with problems. Ryan and Lillian Bright brought multiple secrets into their marriage, and their daughter, Georgette, paid the price. Told from three separate POVs, Damoff’s book is recommended for readers of Mary Beth Keane and Claire Lombardo.
Digging deep into the complex connections of family, community, politics, and heritage, Jon Hickey’s debut novel follows a small group of characters involved with the governance of an Anishinaabe tribal community in Wisconsin. Recent law school grad Mitch Caddo must navigate conflicting obligations to friends and family as a tribal election turns into an all-out brawl.
If you're looking for a fever-dream road trip novel about a nonbinary corporate burnout traveling from Chicago to Arkansas to find their missing conspiracy-theorist father...well, I have excellent news for you! This new novel is giving modern-day Hunter S. Thompson vibes with howling class rage, economic spiraling, and gender expression.
This historical fiction debut follows four young women who enroll at Oxford University in 1920—the first year the university formally admitted female students in degree-granting programs. Coming from vastly different backgrounds, Beatrice, Marianne, Otto, and Dora form an unlikely, life-affirming friendship in the wake of the Great War.
Inspired by actual events largely overlooked in historical accounts, The Lilac People begins in Berlin’s vibrant queer community just before Hitler’s rise to power. Trans man Bertie’s efforts to advance queer rights in his city suddenly turn into a desperate struggle for survival. And when the Allies arrive, things don’t get much better. Author Milo Todd presents the full story of an obscured corner of World War II history.
Canadian author Morgan Dick draws from her own experience working in the mental health field for this unique novel concerning an estranged father, two half-sisters, and an unusual bequeathment. It’s a twisty story, but the important question is this: What’s the protocol when you learn that your new therapist is actually your sister?
When 43-year-old Abe Jacobs is told by doctors that he's dying, and dying fast, he reluctantly returns home to the Ahkwesáhsne reservation where he was raised. There he turns to his great uncle Budge Billings—an unsentimental, recovering alcoholic healer—for help. Author Aaron John Curtis presents a coming-of-middle-age story with wit and wisdom, recommended for fans of Tommy Orange and Louise Erdrich.
Supermarket cashier Julie Chan may have just made a big mistake. She has stolen the identity of her recently deceased twin sister, Chloe, a rich and glamorous influencer with powerful friends. But as Julie soon learns, Chloe’s life was (and is) very complicated. And very dangerous. Canadian author Liann Zhang presents a decidedly 21st-century kind of thriller.
The debut novel from Colorado author Nini Berndt blends elements of mystery and dystopia into a story set about five minutes into our collective, uncertain future. When Lucy moves to Denver to investigate the death of her brother, she finds a city falling apart—with a massive storm on the way. She also finds an undeniable connection with Helen, the woman her brother loved.
Nature, in Her infinite wisdom, has arranged things so we experience our youth when we’re young. We’d never survive it otherwise. That’s the notion behind Aria Aber’s candid novel, which follows 19-year-old Nila, daughter of Afghan immigrants, through her hard-partying years in Berlin’s hipster underground. Aber’s coming-of-age story features “love and family, raves and Kafka.” Can’t argue with that.
Inspired by her own upbringing on the Upper East Side, debut novelist Cynthia Weiner spins a wild yarn concerning 1980s New York City, hot guys, cool bars, young lust, crazy mothers, and growing up in the era of cheap and plentiful cocaine. Weiner’s brand of (recent) historical fiction also folds in thriller elements based on the case of the infamous Preppy Killer.
Billed as a literary page-turner, this sprawling suspense story from recovering attorney Kristin Koval spans several decades, from Colorado ski country to post-9/11 New York City. A shocking death triggers memories of a long-ago tragedy as Koval’s characters confront issues of forgiveness, family loyalty, childhood trauma, and the cold realities of the justice system.
Born in Tehran, raised in L.A., and living in London, author Sanam Mahloudji writes about the slow-boil consequences of displacement in her debut novel. The Persians follows three generations of Iranian women. Some fled to America during the 1979 Iranian revolution. Some didn’t. Mahloudji weaves her five storylines through flashbacks into Iran’s troubled history.
A sociological parable wrapped around a mystery-thriller plotline, this bold debut introduces recent college graduate Evie Gordon, currently the target of a nationwide manhunt. It seems that Evie’s week got suddenly and severely weird when her gig tutoring L.A. rich kids turned into a bloody murder scene. Author Hannah Deitch has some things to say about money, media, and America’s delusions concerning social mobility.
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. Reader reviews on this one are glowing and melancholy at the same time. Remember to hug your dog.
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 seems 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.
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.
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.
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.
