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Booklists

Lists of books, many of which received at least one starred review (indicating a work of unusual merit) from the following review sources: Booklist , Publisher's Weekly (PW), Kirkus and Library Journal (LJ). Additional titles of interest may be included on the lists. Titles are generally listed alphabetically by author.

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Booklists and Suggested Reading

Fiction Debuts - 2004

Page Modified: February 11, 2008

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.

• How I Paid for College: A Novel of Sex, Theft, Friendship & Musical Theater
  Author: Acito, Marc
  Publisher: Broadway $ 21.95 ISBN: 076791841X Date: 2004
  Kirkus PW
  Set in 1983, this is a deliciously funny romp of a novel about one overly theatrical and sexually confused New Jersey teenager's larcenous quest for his acting school tuition.
  Updated 9.6.04
• The Coyote Kings of the Space-Age Bachelor Pad
  Author: Azania, Malcolm & Minister Faust
  Publisher: Del Rey $ 14.95 (paper) ISBN: 0345466357 Date: 2004
  LJ Booklist
  Updated 6.15.04
• A Sundog Moment
  Author: Baldacci, Sharon
  Publisher: Warner Faith $ 19.95 ISBN: 0446533661 Date: 2004
  Booklist
  In Baldacci's deeply moving debut novel, a woman with multiple sclerosis faces a new journey fraught with wrenching pain, enduring wisdom, and authentic joy.
  Updated 9.7.04
• Liberating Paris
  Author: Bloodworth-Thomason, Linda
  Publisher: Morrow $ 24.95 ISBN: 0060596708 Date: 2004
  PW
  The creator of TV's Designing Women makes her publishing debut with this story of small town American life--the story of six friends on the verge of middle age who must come to terms with the past in order to claim the future for themselves and their children.
  Updated 8.9.04
• Safelight
  Author: Burke, Shannon
  Publisher: Random $ 23.95 ISBN: 1400062012 Date: 2004
  Kirkus LJ
  It’s 1990, and New York City is in shambles: unemployment reigns, crack wars rage, and whole neighborhoods burn as delinquent landlords cash in. Struggling to come to terms with his father’s death, paramedic and photographer Frank Verbeckas descends into the chaos and misery of upper Manhattan, taking photographs of the ill, the wounded, the dying, and the down-and-out. Accompanying him on his wanderings are his loudmouthed partner, Burnett; his best friend, Hock, who boosts drugs from the hospital; and his brother, Norman, a surgeon who can’t understand why Frank is in such pain. Frank’s ruin seems inevitable, but when he meets Emily, a professional fencer whose days are numbered by a fatal illness, his world changes. Against everyone’s advice, Frank and Emily fall in love. Together, they try to find a way out of the murk of guilt and sadness and learn to draw meaning and beauty from despair.

  In short, cinematic scenes, with not a word wasted and nothing told that can be shown, Shannon Burke leads us on a powerful journey through the darkest precincts of the street and of the soul. Honest, terse, and enormously moving, Safelight is a debut of remarkable depth, a stunning, clear-eyed, and sympathetic portrait of American life and death–a love story not for the faint of heart. - Publisher Marketing.
  Updated 9.22.04

• The Rule of Four
  Author: Caldwell, Ian & Dustin Thomason
  Publisher: Dial $ 24 ISBN: 0385337116
  Kirkus PW
  When a long-lost diary surfaces, it seems Tom Sullivan and Paul Harris have found the key to a secret labyrinth. However, when a fellow researcher is murdered only hours after their find, the friends suddenly realize that they are caught in a web of great danger.
  Rule of Four web site
  Updated 3.15.04
• The Cloud Atlas
  Author: Callahan, Liam
  Publisher: Delacorte $ 22.95 ISBN: 0385336942
  Kirkus LJ
  In a richly inspired debut reminiscent of Snow Falling on Cedars and The English Patient, this stirring novel, set against a magnificent Alaskan backdrop, reveals one of the most closely guarded secrets of World War II in a tale that is both a heart-quickening mystery and a unique love story.
  Suggested Reading: Historical Fiction Stars | World War Stars
  Updated 3.1.04
• The Food of Love
  Author: Capella, Anthony
  Publisher: Viking $ 21.95 ISBN: 0670033227 Date: 2004
  LJ
  In the spirit of Like Water for Chocolate and Chocolat, Capella's delicious first novel, tempts readers to devour it at one sitting and confirms that fine food and romance are a winning combination.
  Suggested Reading: Cooked Books
  Updated 7.13.04
• Buddy Cooper Finds a Way
  Author: Connelly, Neil
  Publisher: Simon & Schuster $ 24 ISBN: 0743246640 Date: 2004
  Kirkus
  Reality collides with the world of make-believe in this remarkable debut novel of a man haunted by his past--and terrified of his future.
  Updated 4.26.04
• Kate Hannigan
  Author: Cookson, Catherine
  Publisher: Simon & Schuster $ 25 ISBN: 0743237730
  Kirkus
  A sweeping historical romance about love across the social divide, this classic first novel--the one that launched the career of England's late, great Cookson--is now available in the U.S. in hardcover for the first time.
  Suggested Reading: Historical Fiction Stars
  Updated 11.24.03
• Crofton's Fire
  Author: Coplin, Keith
  Publisher: Putnam $ 21.95 ISBN: 0399151125
  Kirkus Booklist
  A highly original first novel, in which a green second lieutenant barely escapes Little Bighorn - only to find that his life's adventures have just begun.
  Suggested Reading: Historical Fiction | Western Stars
  Updated 11.25.03
• Marrying Mozart
  Author: Cowell, Stephanie
  Publisher: Penguin $ 24.95 ISBN: 0670032689
  Kirkus
  Updated 11.24.03
• The Green Age of Asher Witherow
  Author: Cunningham, M. Allen
  Publisher: Unbridled $ 24.95 ISBN: 1932961003 Date: 2004
  LJ
  Rich in historical detail, this gorgeously written debut novel tells the story of a young soul coming of age during the boom and bust years of a California Welsh coal mining in the 1860-70s. M. Allen Cunnignham writes about a place at once gritty, yet magical. He captures an intimate connection between the characters and a sweeping landscape, where the future seems filled with promise but where a day's labor is bone breaking and dangerous. - Publisher Marketing.
  Updated 8.16.04
• Heaven Lake
  Author: Dalton, John
  Publisher: Scribner $ 26 ISBN: 0743246349
  PW
  In this extraordinary debut novel in the tradition of Graham Greene, a Christian volunteer treks across China in search of love and revelation.
  Updated 12.29.03
• Circus in Winter
  Author: Day, Cathy
  Publisher: Harcourt $ 23 ISBN: 015101048x
  Kirkus LJ PW
  From 1884 to 1939, the Great Porter Circus made the unlikely choice to winter in an Indiana town called Lima. Day follows a colorful cast of circus people into their everyday lives and brings the greatest show on earth to the page.
  Suggested Reading: All Stars | Circus Stars
  Updated 5.17.04
• Antonio's Wife
  Author: Dejohn, Jacqueline
  Publisher: Regan $ 24.95 ISBN: 0060558008
  Booklist
  This warmly moving first novel is about an opera diva searching for the daughter she abandoned and a sensitive married seamstress torn between duty and destiny.
  Updated 2.5.04
• Anything You Say Can and Will Be Used Against You
  Author: Drummond, Laurie Lynn
  Publisher: HarperCollins $ 23.95 ISBN: 0060561629
  Kirkus LJ
  Women cops are the focus of this riveting debut collection of short fiction by a former policewoman.
  Updated 11.18.03
• The Saints and Sinners of Okay County
  Author: Dunbar, Dayna
  Publisher: Ballantine $ 23.95 ISBN: 0345460391
  Kirkus
  In this heartfelt and compelling debut novel, a down-on-her-luck woman faces down pain to reclaim her own belief in herself and restore order to a life that's gone desperately off track.
  Updated 11.12.03
• Rear View: Stories
  Author: Duval, Pete
  Publisher: Mariner $ 10.00 (paper) ISBN: 0618441409 Date: 2004
  Kirkus
  Starkly honest, gritty, and at times darkly humorous, the 12 stories in Duval's debut collection feature blue-collar workers, lapsed Catholics, bullies, and smalltime thieves struggling with their jobs, their relationships, and their families.
  Updated 6.1.04
• The Second Life of Samuel Tyne
  Author: Edugyan, Esi
  Publisher: Amistad $ 24.95 ISBN: 0060736038 Date: 2004
  PW
  Haunting and atmospheric, this debut novel portrays the heartbreak, hardship and moments of surprising grace in the life of a man struggling to realize his destiny.
  Updated 7.12.04
• Sammy's Hill
  Author: Gore, Kristin
  Publisher: Miramax $ 23.95 ISBN: 1401352197 Date: 2004
  Booklist LJ
  Kristin Gore, comedy writer and daughter of Tipper and Al Gore, makes her hilarious and touching fiction debut with a poignant look at Capitol Hill as seen through the eyes of a particularly charming young intern.
  Suggested Reading: Political Fiction
  Updated 8.16.04
• Something Borrowed
  Author: Griffin, Emily
  Publisher: St Martins $ 21.95 ISBN: 031232118x Date: 2004
  Booklist
  Griffin presents her first novel about falling in love with the one guy you shouldn't.
  Suggested Reading: Chicklit
  Updated 6.1.04
• The Laws of Invisible Things
  Author: Huyler, Frank
  Publisher: Holt $ 25 ISBN: 0805073302
  PW
  In this suspenseful and finely wrought first novel, a young doctor's encounter with a mysterious disease leads him to a crossroads between faith and reason.
  Updated 3.1.04
• Sock
  Author: Jillette, Penn
  Publisher: Griffin $ 12.95 (paper) ISBN: 0312328052 Date: 2004
  Booklist
  When a police diver finds the body of his ex-lover in the waters off New York City, he realizes she was the love of his life, so he sets off to find her killer along with her best friend, a gay hairdresser.
  Updated 5.7.04
• Broken for You
  Author: Kallos, Stephanie
  Publisher: Grove $ 23 ISBN: 0802117791 Date: 2004
  Kirkus Booklist LJ
  Funny, heartbreaking and alive with a potpourri of eccentric and irresistible characters, this fresh and compulsively readable debut novel is about two women in self-imposed exile whose lives intersect, transforming both their worlds.
  Suggested Reading: All Stars
  Updated 8.16.04
• Caramba: A Tale Told in Turns of the Card
  Author: Martinez, Nina Marie
  Publisher: Knopf $ 24.95 ISBN: 0375413758
  LJ Booklist
  This fast-paced, feisty tale of female friendship is the debut of a fresh and enchanting new literary voice. By turns a soap opera and a honky tonk spiritual guide, Caramba! combines romance with adventure and rolls them into one big hot tamale.
  Updated 3.11.04
• Playing James
  Author: Mason, Sarah
  Publisher: Ballantine $ 12.95 (paper) ISBN: 0345469550 Date: 2004
  LJ
  A hilarious and charming debut novel, Playing James follows an adorable rookie crime reporter as she takes on love, loot, and a certain boy in blue.
  Suggested Reading: Chicklit
  Updated 4.5.04
• Waterborne
  Author: Murkoff, Bruce
  Publisher: Knopf $ 25 ISBN: 1400040388
  LJ PW Booklist
  A panorama of human desire and enterprise, this debut novel is exceptional for its ambition, generosity, characters and grasp of history.
  Suggested Reading: All Stars
  Updated 2.5.04
• An Evening of Long Goodbyes
  Author: Murray, Paul
  Publisher: Random $ 24.95 ISBN: 1400061164 Date: 2004
  Kirkus Booklist PW
  Vastly entertaining and outright hilarious, Paul Murray's debut heralds the arrival of a major new Irish talent. His protagonist is endearing and wildly witty-part P. G. Wodehouse's Bertie Wooster, with a cantankerous dash of A Confederacy of Dunces' Ignatius J. Reilly thrown in. With its rollicking plot and colorful characters, An Evening of Long Goodbyes is a delightful and erudite comedy of epic proportions.
  Suggested Reading: All Stars
  Updated 6.30.04
• The First Desire
  Author: Reisman, Nancy
  Publisher: Pantheon $ 24 ISBN: 0375423087 Date: 2004
  PW
  A debut novel "of startling assurance and poise" (Nicholas Delbanco, author of What Remains), The First Desire takes readers back to the 1929 disappearance of Goldie Cohen and what happened to her family during the tumultuous years that followed.
  Updated 7.19.04
• The True and Outstanding Adventures of the Hunt Sisters
  Author: Robinson, Elizabeth
  Publisher: Little Brown $ 23.95 ISBN: 0316735027
  Kirkus PW Booklist
  The bestselling status (and subsequent blockbuster film adaptations) of Bridget Jones's Diary and Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood is proof of the enduring strength of this category. Although the novel is invented, Robinson is a successful Hollywood producer whose credits include Braveheart and Last Orders.
  Suggested Reading: All Stars
  Updated 11.12.03
• Sweet and Vicious
  Author: Schickler, David
  Publisher: Dial $ 23 ISBN: 0385335687 Date: 2004
  Kirkus Booklist
  In this first novel, the acclaimed author of Kissing Manhattan brings readers a larger-than-life legend of a tough guy on the run and the outrageous woman who tames his spirit. Passionate, criminal, comical and possessing all the dark enchantment of a fairy tale, Sweet and Vicious is a modern love story shot straight from the heart of David Schickler's miraculous imagination. - Publisher Marketing.
  Updated 9.20.04
• Like the Red Panda
  Author: Seigel, Andrea
  Publisher: Harcourt $ 13 (paperback) ISBN: 0156030241
  LJ
  Updated 2.2.04
• The Anxiety of Everyday Objects
  Author: Sheehan, Aurelie
  Publisher: Penguin $ 14 (paper) ISBN: 0142003700
  Kirkus LJ
  An original, witty, compulsively readable tale for any woman who has struggled with creative yearning and duty to the daily grind. In her absorbing debut novel, Sheehan's depiction of the working girl's life in the big city is as charming as it is inspiring.
  Updated 2.13.04
• The Send-Away Girl
  Author: Sutton, Barbara
  Publisher: Univ of Georgia $ 24.95 ISBN: 0820326550 Date: 2004
  Booklist
  Barbara Sutton's quirky debut collection tracks the emotional journeys of characters struggling to find harmonious relationships with the people they are expected to love and be loved by. - Publisher Marketing.
  Updated 8.13.04
• All That Is gone
  Author: Toer, Pramoedya Ananta
  Publisher: Hyperion $ 23.95 ISBN: 1401366635
  Booklist
  Updated 2.5.04
• Soul City
  Author: Toure
  Publisher: Little Brown $ 19.95 ISBN: 0316741582 Date: 2004
  LJ
  From the popular author of the groundbreaking debut The Portable Promised Land comes an inventive and hilarious first novel about an African-American utopia threatened by the darker side of human nature.
  Suggested Reading: African American Stars
  Updated 10.7.04
• The Book of Joe
  Author: Tropper, Jonathan
  Publisher: Delacorte $ 19.95 ISBN: 0385337418 Date: 2004
  LJ
  Optioned by Warner Bros. for a motion picture, this witty and heartwarming novel is a captivating debut that proves hilariously and poignantly that sometimes you "can" go home again.
  Updated 3.15.04
• Outside Valentine
  Author: Ward, Liza
  Publisher: Holt $ 23 ISBN: 0805075984 Date: 2004
  PW Booklist LJ
  Debut novelist Ward interweaves a trio of voices--haunting, dangerous, and full of longing--mysteriously linked by a shocking crime and the search to heal the past.
  Suggested Reading: All Stars
  Updated 9.20.04
• Apprentice to the Flower Poet Z
  Author: Weinstein, Debra
  Publisher: Random $ 23.95 ISBN: 1400061555
  LJ
  In a wickedly funny first novel, Weinstein writes about an aspiring young poet and the celebrated mentor who tries to hold her back.
  Updated 11.18.03
• Colors Insulting to Nature
  Author: Wilson, Cintra
  Publisher: Fourth Estate $ 24.95 ISBN: 0007154607 Date: 2004
  Booklist
  "The publisher is reputedly bouncing up and down about this first novel by pop culture doyenne Wilson, whose columns can be spotted on Salon.com. Teenaged Liza wants to be a starlet, but she is really something much more special."--Library Journal.
  Updated 7.6.04
• Good Grief
  Author: Winston, Lolly
  Publisher: Warner $ 18 ISBN: 0446533041
  PW
  Good Grief is a brilliantly funny and heartwarming debut about a young woman who stumbles, then fights to build a new life after the death of her husband.
  Updated 3.1.04
• Broken As Things Are
  Author: Witt, Martha
  Publisher: Holt $ 23 ISBN: 080507595x Date: 2004
  Kirkus
  "A sensitive Southern tale of weirdly imaginative children and hapless adults. Ms. Witt has staked out a territory somewhere between Harper Lee and Flannery O'Connor." - E. L. Doctorow. - Publisher Marketing.
  Updated 6.10.04
• Songbird
  Author: Zacharius, Walter
  Publisher: Atria $ 24 ISBN: 0743482115 Date: 2004
  Booklist
  In this haunting and moving debut novel that echoes the emotional intensity of The Pianist, a young woman must rely on her remarkable strength of character in order to survive the devastation of World War II.
  Suggested Reading: Historical Fiction Stars | World War Stars
  Updated 6.10.04

Mystery, Suspense, Thrillers & Crime Fiction: First Novels 2004
More Debut/First Look information

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