LJ’s Summer Promise — Debut Novels

“Ranging from literary biggies that boomed at BEA to hot genre fiction that got LibraryReads love, the debut novels on this list are backed by [Library Journal] reviews and/or reader interest and are definitely worth reading and recommending.” — Barbara Hoffert, Library Journal

THE INVISIBLE LIFE OF IVAN ISAENKO by Scott Stambach
Aptly described as One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest meets THE FAULT IN OUR STARS, this heartbreaking story of a 17-year-old who has lived his entire life in Ukraine’s Mazyr Hospital for Gravely Ill Children was building interest even before it received “Shout ‘n Share” acclaim.

GRIEF IS THE THING WITH FEATHERS by Max Porter
A man grief-stricken by his wife’s sudden death stumbles around the house, barely tends his children, then opens the front door…and is whacked backward by a huge, decayed-smelling crow, the mystical black embodiment of his sorrow. Winner of the International Dylan Thomas Prize; “like a prose poem in its splendid language but with its own swift flow.”

THE DRY by Jane Harper
A federal investigator from Melbourne faces his past; sold to 19 countries and bought for film.

THE NEXT by Stephanie Gangi
Dead from breast cancer, Joanna DeAngelis cannot find peace; she was bitterly hurt by former lover Ned and drifts between this world and the next, plotting revenge. This darkly fun title was celebrated at “Shout ‘n Share”; sneak-peek comments from booksellers and reviewers suggest it will be popular.

RED RIGHT HAND by Levi Black
It’s not just the skinless attack dogs that scare Charlie Moore. There’s bigger trouble when the Man in Black seeks to make her his acolyte, since she’s a descendant of H.P. Lovecraft. “Fans of dark fantasy and horror in full and gory detail will be entranced by this debut novel.”

ARABELLA OF MARS by David D. Levine
Though she would rather be working with her father on his automatons, Arabella finds herself gliding dangerously through space as she travels from a British colony on Mars to earthly London. From a Hugo Award winner for short fiction; an LJ Fantasy Debut of the Month.