The Best Debuts of 2020

Shuggie Bain 
Douglas Stuart
A working-class mother and son in 1980s Glasgow grapple with addiction, sexuality and love in Douglas Stuart’s blistering and heartrending debut. Stuart has a great love for his characters, evident in every word of this panoramic portrait of family and place, one where Shuggie and Agnes stay with you long after the story ends. “[B]lending the tragic with the funny, the unsparing with the tender, the compassionate with the excruciating … This overwhelmingly vivid novel is not just an accomplished debut. It also feels like a moving act of filial reverence.” —James Walton, The New York Review of Books

Memorial 
Bryan Washington
A story about the nature and limits of love; one that transcends societal expectations and serves up a witty and profound look at joy in all forms. Washington brilliantly finds beauty in the everyday; love for food, home and each other and ultimately, what really makes a family. You will fall in love with every character again and again. “Memorial … casts a fresh take on the American family that becomes truer because of its disparate origins, the queerness of its genesis, and the buoyed wonder it finds in surviving grief and loss … This book, in what feels like a new vision for the 21st-century novel, made me happy.” —Ocean Vuong, author of On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous 

Bestiary 
K-Ming Chang
K-Ming Chang brings her poet’s voice to this visceral, bold and crackling debut. Tackling the traditions of myths and oral history, Bestiary follows the perspectives of three generations of Taiwanese American women, illustrating the evolving nature of storytelling and its influence on who we become. Ultimately a novel of family, Bestiary is full of strangely beautiful prose that makes for a powerfully transformative and unforgettable read. K-Ming Chang was recently recognized as one of this year’s 5 Under 35 Honorees — a program that spotlights young, debut fiction writers whose work “promises to leave a lasting impression on the literary landscape.”

Fifty Words for Rain
Asha Lemmie
Colorism and lack of acceptance are issues that span across many different families of all nationalities and can create, shape, or damage a child’s perception of self. Fifty Words for Rain is a staggering exploration of this, and one that also spotlights honor, familial bonds and finding your place in the world. This is a story that stays with you, haunts you, and one that Mark Sullivan, author of Beneath a Scarlet Sky called “[s]ensitive and bristling with closely-observed humanity.” It is a sweeping saga that takes readers from Kyoto and Tokyo to Paris and London and back.

Migrations 
Charlotte McConaghy
Migrations is a love letter to the natural world — a breathtaking portrait of grief, trauma and the lengths we will go to for those we love. A world on the brink of catastrophe parallels a young woman searching for redemption in this haunting and completely captivating debut. This is just one of those stories you won’t be able to shake and is an absolute dream for fans of Flight Behavior and Station Eleven. But most importantly, this is a novel of hope against the odds — a literary balm for the soul.

A Burning 
Megha Majumdar
A Burning is an astonishing, heartbreaking story about power — who has it, who doesn’t and what some will do to get it. In a deceptively slim package like Colson Whitehead’s The Nickel Boys and There, There by Tommy Orange, this is an unforgettable debut by a magnificent new voice. Megha Majumdar, a book editor by trade, never takes the reader for granted, and her writing is full of the contradictions and surprises she looks for in a great novel. We could not get over the complexities, distinct characters and timely messages throughout this amazing story.

Real Life 
Brandon Taylor
Through the lens of higher academia, Brandon Taylor takes a look at race and queerness in this profound story of intimacy, loneliness, desire and trauma. A poignant coming-of-age debut that brilliantly captures the inner and outer struggles of an introverted, gay, Black graduate student, one that questions the real cost of overcoming private wounds. “Psychologically compelling, incisively satirical, told in a muted style that nevertheless accesses a full emotional range, this is a brilliant book, worthy of a wide audience.”—The Guardian

The Girl with the Louding Voice 
Abi Daré
Powerful and unforgettable. This is the type of novel that will stay with you long after you finish it and make you immediately recommend it to your closest friends. Adunni’s tale is one of heartbreak, but also of perseverance, resilience and a light that cannot be dimmed. The Girl with the Louding Voice is told with such an original voice that it will most likely inspire you to find your own. “A celebration of girls who dare to dream.” — Imbolo Mbue, author of Behold the Dreamers 

Valentine 
A vicious assault on a teenager splits a West Texas oil town in half in this riveting tale of justice deferred and the lingering effects of a brutal crime. But it’s the unforgettable characters and brilliantly rendered landscape in novelist Elizabeth Wetmore’s debut that will remind readers of Barbara Kingsolver and Larry McMurtry. “Fierce and complex, Valentine is a novel of moral urgency and breathtaking prose. This is the very definition of a stunning debut.” — Ann Patchett, bestselling author of The Dutch House 

My Dark Vanessa: A Novel 
Kate Elizabeth Russell
A haunting and brilliant read that explores the power play between a manipulative teacher and his naïve young student and the lasting effects the affair has on both decades later. Uncomfortable, disturbing and, yet, extremely relevant, My Dark Vanessa is very much a raw take on a modern-day Lolita. The read is at times painful and infuriating, but it is without a doubt a novel you will never forget. “To call this book a ‘conversation piece’ or ‘an important book’ feels belittling … this book is so much more than that. It’s a lightning rod.” — The Washington Post

How Much of These Hills Is Gold 
C Pam Zhang
Epic in scope while intimate in detail, C Pam Zhang’s story of two siblings in a gold rush mining town beautifully blends Chinese symbolism with reimagined history. Exploring issues of race in an expanding country, questions of belonging and home are at the heart of this outstanding debut. “This novel is at once a thrilling adventure, a tender coming-of-age story, an excavation of the corrosive mythmaking surrounding the American west, and the arrival of a major literary talent.” — Esquire

Exciting Times 
Naoise Dolan
Compelling and emotionally raw, a story around the choices and freedoms of modern love and the risks worth taking to discover true happiness. Centered on a love triangle that spans Dublin to Hong Kong and defies convention, Dolan’s debut novel is a witty rumination on love, class, politics and economics in these, well, exciting times. “Wonderfully intuitive and fluid … An examination of sex, queerness, self-sabotage, power, and privilege.” — The New Yorker 

Shiner 
Amy Jo Burns
Shiner is a story of secrets and lies, family and faith that will have you holding your breath. There are characters you’ll fall madly in love with, and others that will simply drive you mad. It’s a portrait of a community, a powerful story of friendship and coming-of-age that you won’t want to end. “[A] wrenching testament, told in language as incandescent as smoldering coal … This is not a despairing book, but a hopeful one, of Appalachian women taking back their life stories.” — The New York Times Book Review

Sharks in the Time of Saviors 
Kawai Strong Washburn
After reading Sharks in the Time of Saviors, I kept coming back to a central theme that cuts to the heart of the story — home is magical and it’s not until you leave that you realize it was there all along. Told from multiple points of view, we follow three siblings as they grapple with their present lives — and their family’s future. Their mother encourages her children to follow their dreams, even if it means doing so will take them far from home. One by one, the siblings return to the island where they must reckon with family secrets, grief and what it means to survive. Sharks in the Time of Saviors is an audacious debut, and I can’t wait to see what Kawai Strong Washburn will write next!

These Ghosts Are Family: A Novel 
Maisy Card
A debut novel that tackles a swath of remarkable characters looking to atone for past sins, with sweeping narration that crosses continents from both the 18th century and 21st century. The ghosts (that are family…) that haunt this work not only represent mistakes of the past, but also the present divides and separations across cultures. Great storytelling and a fresh premise, this book is not to be missed and Maisy Card is one to watch!