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Fiction Debuts - 2006
Page Modified: June 1, 2007
A list featuring
some selected first novels and debut short story collections (mostly
hardcover). This list may not be comprehensive. First novel information
is collected from a variety of sources. Annotations are from Advance, the Ingram Book Magazine - unless
otherwise noted.
- Cellophane
Author: Arana, Marie
Publisher: Dial $ 24 ISBN: 0385336640 Date: 2006
PW Booklist
From noted writer and National Book Award finalist Arana comes a debut novel with all the power and grace of her acclaimed memoir, American Chica.
Suggested Reading:Latino/Latina Stars
Updated 5.16.06 - Princess Izzy and the E Street Shuffle
Author: Bartlett, Beverly
Publisher: Warner $ 12.95 ISBN: 0446695599 Date: 2006
Kirkus
Styled as a royal biography, this clever and witty debut follows a fictitious princess whose svengali is a mechanic who takes his advice from Bruce Springsteen.
Suggested Reading: Chicklit
Updated 1.10.06 - Winkie
Author: Chase, Clifford
Publisher: Grove $ 17.95 ISBN: 0802118305 Date: 2006
PW
Kirkus Booklist
In Cliff Chase's scathingly funny and surprisingly humane debut novel, the zeitgeist assumes the form of a one-foot-tall ursine Everyman--a mild-mannered teddy bear named Winkie who comes to life and finds himself on the wrong side of America's war on terror. After suffering decades of neglect from the children who once loved him, Winkie realizes that taking charge of his fate is as simple as knowing that he can do it, and so he hurls himself off the shelf, jumps out the window, and takes to the forest. But just as he is discovering the joys and wonders of mobility, self-determination, even true love, this small brown creature of indeterminate gender gets trapped in the jaws of a society gone rabid with fear and paranoia. Having come upon the cabin of the mad professor who stole his beloved, Winkie is suddenly surrounded by the FBI, who instantly conclude that he is the evil mastermind behind dozens of terrorist attacks that have been traced to the forest. Terrified and confused, Winkie is brought to trial, where the prosecution attempts to seal the little bear's fate by calling upon witnesses from the trials of Galileo, Socrates, John Scopes, and Oscar Wilde. Emotionally gripping and intellectually compelling, Winkie introduces the most memorable protagonist since the Velveteen Rabbit, and--with the help of a lesbian Moslem cleaning woman, a stuttering attorney, and a Lacan-spewing bear cub--brilliantly exposes the cruel absurdities of our age and explores what it means to be human in an increasingly barbaric world. - Publisher Marketing
Suggested Reading: All Stars
Updated 5.16.06 - The Madonnas of Leningrad
Author: Dean, Debra
Publisher: Morrow $ 23.95 ISBN: 0060825308 Date: 2006
Booklist LJ
In this sublime debut novel, set amid the horrors of the siege of Leningrad in World War II, a gifted writer explores the power of memory to save . . . and betray.
Suggested Reading: World Wars
Updated 2.14.06 - Skinner's Drift
Author: Fugard, Lisa
Publisher: Scribner $ 25 ISBN: 0743272994 Date: 2006
Kirkus PW Booklist
In this beautiful and brutal debut, the new South Africa comes to life with its violent history, as Eva van Rensburg must do when she confronts her dying father with a terrible secret from her childhood.
Suggested Reading: All Stars
Updated 10.11.05 - Rattled
Author: Galant, Debra
Publisher: St Martins $ 21.95 ISBN: 0312349319 Date: 2006
LJ
Carl Hiassen meets Desperate Housewives in this hilarious debut about a face-off between the new suburban chic, some old-time residents, a real estate mogul--and a rattlesnake.
Suggested Reading: If You Like Carl Hiassen
Updated 11.22.05 - Golden Country
Author: Gilmore, Jennifer
Publisher: Scribner $ 25 ISBN: 0743288637 Date: 2006
PW
Gilmore reinvents the classic Jewish American novel in her ambitious and extraordinary debut that follows the intertwining lives of three immigrant families from the 1920s to 1960s.
Updated 5.4.06 - White Ghost Girls
Author: Greenaway, Alice
Publisher: Grove $ 13 ISBN: 0802170188 Date: 2006
Kirkus
Booklist
In her astonishing literary debut, Greenway tells a tale of sacrifice and solidarity between two American sisters who tumble into their teenage years in 1967 Hong Kong, against an extraordinary backdrop that is both sensuous and dangerous.
Suggested Reading: Historical Fiction
Updated 11.14.05 - Kiffe Kiffe Tomorrow
Author: Guene, Faiza
Publisher: Harvest $ 13 ISBN: 0156030489 Date: 2006
LJ
Kirkus
Disarmingly funny and fresh, Gune's debut novel is a hopeful, wise, and intimate portrait of Arab immigrant life, as it follows Doria, a 15-year-old Muslim French girl living in the infamous Paradise projects of suburban Paris.
Updated 5.10.06 - Kept: A Novel of Sex, Manners, and My Blue Blood
Author: Hong, Y. Euny
Publisher: Simon & Schuster $ 24 ISBN: 0743286839 Date: 2006
Kirkus
Snob chic meats social satire in this wickedly funny debut novel about a fallen member of the Korean royal family who becomes a courtesan once her family stops footing her bills.
Updated 5.10.06 - Utterly Monkey
Author: Laird, Nick
Publisher: Perennial $ 13.95 (paper) ISBN: 0060828366 Date: 2006
Kirkus
An energetic, fiercely funny, ultimately redemptive debut novel set in London and Northern Ireland chronicles the lives of two reunited friends who discover that one of them has accidentally stolen money from a band of paramilitary terrorists.
Updated 10.11.05 - Londonstani
Author: Malkani, Gautam
Publisher: Penguin $ 24.95 ISBN: 1594200971 Date: 2006
LJ
Malkani's extraordinary debut comic novel portrays the lives of young Muslim, Sikh, and Hindu men in the ethnically challenged enclave of one of the biggest western cities, London.
Updated 5.4.06 - A Taxonomy of Barnacles
Author: Niederhoffer, Galt
Publisher: St Martins $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312334834 Date: 2006
Booklist
"Rich in poignant detail, Niederhoffer paints a fascinating portrait of six sisters engaged in the merciless age-old fist-fight, struggling to love and best each other in turn."--Nicola Kraus, co-author of The Nanny Diaries.
Updated 11.14.05 - Halfway House
Author: Noel, Katherine
Publisher: Atlantic $ 23 ISBN: 0871139340 Date: 2006
LJ
Set in a small town in New Hampshire, this novel is the story of a girl's psychotic break and her family's subsequent turmoil. With grace and precision rarely seen in a first novel, Noel guides readers through a world where love is imperfect, and where longing for an imagined ideal can both destroy one family's happiness and offer redemption.
Updated 12.27.05 - Two Women of Galilee
Author: Rourke, Mary
Publisher: Mira $ 21.95 ISBN: 0778323749 Date: 2006
Booklist
A courtier's wife encounters the mother of God in this debut novel--the beautifully imagined story of Joanna, mentioned in the Bible as "the wife of Herod's steward Chuza," who accompanied Jesus and the disciples.
Updated 4.17.06 - The Best People in the World
Author: Tussing, Justin
Publisher: HarperCollins $ 24.95 ISBN: 0060815337 Date: 2006
PW
"What might have been the stuff of boyish fantasies--an affair with a teacher, running away from home, living off the land--goes frighteningly awry in this unsettling but bleakly beautiful debut novel."--"Publishers Weekly."
Updated 9.26.05
Mystery,
Suspense, Thrillers & Crime Fiction: First Novels 2006
More Debut/First Look information
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