{"id":43065,"date":"2017-11-08T11:12:24","date_gmt":"2017-11-08T16:12:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/?p=43065"},"modified":"2019-04-12T23:09:15","modified_gmt":"2019-04-13T03:09:15","slug":"diverse-debut-novels-booklist-reader","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/diverse-debut-novels-booklist-reader\/","title":{"rendered":"A Dozen Diverse Debut Novels [in The Booklist Reader]"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"The Sympathizer<\/em><\/a> by Viet Thanh Nguyen<\/a>. The Kite Runner<\/em><\/a> by Khaled Hosseini. White Teeth<\/em> by Zadie Smith. What do these novels have in common? All were debuts, and all earned coveted awards, plaudits, and significant sales numbers.<\/p>\n

For those of you watching the prize and bestseller lists, keep an eye out for these dozen diverse debut novels published in 2016 and 2017.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"After Disasters<\/a><\/strong> by Viet Dinh<\/a><\/p>\n

O. Henry Prize-winner Dinh drops four characters into the tragic aftermath of the real-life cataclysmic earthquake in Gujarat, India, in January 2001. As the protagonists travel from New York, London, and Delhi to attempt to save lives, including their own, the resulting global narrative explores the efficacy of international aid, the price of survival, and the cost of love amidst conflict, catastrophes, and failed connections. Thrown into violence and lawless chaos, one will die, two will almost fall in love, three will leave, and all will be forever changed.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"And After Many Days<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0by Jowhor Ile<\/p>\n

Ajie was the last person to have seen his 17-year-old brother Paul, the family\u2019s exceptional firstborn, on a Monday afternoon during Nigeria\u2019s 1995 rainy season. Ajie \u2013 four years younger \u2013 documents the before and after of his splintered family\u2019s story. Ile overlays the personal onto Nigeria\u2019s turbulent past to create a debut novel of combustive intensity and universal heartbreak.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"Everything Belongs to Us<\/strong><\/a> by Yoojin Grace Wuertz<\/p>\n

During the explosive sociopolitical upheaval of 1970s South Korea, two childhood best friends enter elite Seoul National University. Jisun is a wealthy businessman\u2019s daughter, but eschews her privilege to live with factory workers, join demonstrations, get arrested, and aid underground organizations. In contrast, Namin has outperformed everyone to gain entry; her singular goal of becoming a medical doctor equals her family\u2019s escape from poverty. Korean-born Wuertz bears witness to the tumult of a nation-in-the-making: clashes with U.S. occupiers, the dismantling of traditional family structures, the impending end of a dictatorship, and the possibilities of a future when everything might belong to a generation as yet unprepared for the challenges to come.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"The Last Days of Caf\u00e9 Leila<\/strong>\u00a0by Donia Bijan<\/a><\/p>\n

In a quiet corner of Tehran, Caf\u00e9 Leila is a welcoming haven for families and strangers. Seeking solace after discovering her husband\u2019s infidelity, Noor, a San Francisco nurse, packs up her teenage daughter, Lily, and returns home to her father after 30-plus years of exile. Beyond the Caf\u00e9\u2019s walls, cultural and political restrictions hold fast, but Noor finds the sanctuary she needs, even as Lily, missing her father and friends, insists she\u2019s a virtual prisoner. Through three generations of displacement, Bijan deftly and gorgeously explores identity, belonging, families (by blood, by choice), and the ties of unconditional love.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"The Leavers<\/strong><\/a> by Lisa Ko<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone had stories they told themselves to get through the days,\u201d Deming Guo muses on his 22nd birthday, summing up a lifetime of leaving \u2013 and being left \u2013 that has defined his short life. Deming, also known as Daniel Wilkinson, provides half of the dual narrative of Ko\u2019s achingly insightful, gorgeously redemptive debut. The other half belongs to Deming\u2019s \u201cMama,\u201d also known as Peilan Guo, Polly Guo, and Polly Lin. In an uncertain world of what-if\u2019s and what might\/could\/should-have-been\u2019s, the pair searches for ways to live beyond mere survival.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"The Mortifications<\/strong><\/a> by Derek Palacio<\/p>\n

Soledad flees Cuba with 12-year-old twins Ulises and Isabel, abandoning her revolutionary husband Uxmal to settle in Hartford, CT. Soledad eventually takes a lover, Henri, a farmer of Dutch ancestry who attempts to cultivate Habano (Cuban) tobacco in Connecticut. Ulises, a behemoth 6\u20197\u2033 teen, commits his mind to college books and his body to Henri\u2019s tobacco fields. Isabel commits her voice to religion, taking a vow of silence. Longing and desperation reunite the estranged parents and children in a remote Cuban village, where each will confront history, culture, familial bonds, and weakened bodies, all of which are on the verge of total collapse.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"The Mothers<\/strong><\/a> by Brit Bennet<\/p>\n

The collective elder mothers of Upper Room Chapel open with a Greek choral recitation of the happenings affecting their congregation. At the center of the chatter is Nadia, who had \u201cearned a wild reputation\u201d since her mother committed suicide six months earlier. The Upper Room elders know that Nadia is pregnant by the pastor\u2019s son. Nadia chooses to attend a prestigious college, has an abortion, and flees. The repercussions of her decision will continue for years. Relationships crumble, reignite, repair, and disappear among family, friends, and lovers, but the inescapable reach of the mothers \u2013 even the missing and lost \u2013 looms.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"Shelter<\/strong><\/a> by Jung Yun<\/p>\n

College professor Kyung Cho and his wife discover Kyung\u2019s mother wandering disoriented and naked beyond their backyard. Kyung concludes she\u2019s been battered by his father again<\/em>. But when he enters his parents\u2019 impeccable manse on the hill seeking answers, he\u2019s shattered to find his parents and their housekeeper the victims of a heinous crime. As the extended Korean Irish American family attempts to reclaim their fractured lives, Kyung\u2019s decades-long, suppressed rage at his abusive father and submissive mother threatens to destroy any semblance of resolution and recovery.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"A Small Revolution<\/a><\/strong> by Jimin Han<\/a><\/p>\n

In a Pennsylvania college dorm, five teens are trapped in a life-or-death situation. The quintet\u2019s point of connection is a Korean American student named Jaesung, reportedly killed in a recent car fire in Seoul. Yoona, in whose room the terror plays out, was Jaesung\u2019s lover. Her three classmates become bargaining chips. Lloyd, armed with deadly weapons, claims both Jaesung and Yoona as intimate friends. He\u2019s convinced Jaesung\u2019s been victimized by a corrupt South Korean regime, and is determined to rescue him by any means necessary. Although marked by events three decades past, Revolution<\/em> proves to be a resonant parable for today\u2019s volatile, fearful times.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"South Haven<\/strong> by Hirsh Sawhney<\/a><\/p>\n

Siddharth Arora is just 10 when his mother dies in a car accident. Almost overnight, he goes from being a regular New Haven suburban tween to being that<\/em> kid with the dead mom. His school psychologist enables him to become friends with her troubled son. His older brother leaves for university and rarely comes home. His father estranges himself from even his best friend, and eventually dares to date another woman. In this not-so-brave new world, Siddharth comes of age, searching for impossible answers, longing for connection, unsure of what the future holds.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"The Translation of Love<\/strong><\/a> by Lynne Kutsukake<\/a><\/p>\n

In a middle-school Tokyo classroom in 1947, two girls are assigned to share a desk: local war survivor Fumi, and Aya, a Canadian of Japanese ancestry who was sent back to a country where she\u2019s never lived. Recognizing Aya\u2019s English fluency motivates Fumi to make a desperate request: Fumi\u2019s older sister is missing\u00a0\u2013 last seen going to work among the occupying American GIs \u2013 and Fumi thinks Aya can help find her. Although the bullets and bombs have disappeared, postwar Tokyo \u2013 caught between enemy occupation and a desperate need to rebuild \u2013 is a lost-in-translation battleground of clashing cultures, divided morals, and tragic misconceptions.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\" What We Lose<\/a><\/strong> by Zinzi Clemmons<\/p>\n

Thandi is the daughter of a New York-born mathematics professor and a Johannesburg-born nurse. She grows up privileged as a \u201clight\u201d African American in Philadelphia. When her mother dies of cancer, Thandi is left with a gaping emotional void that intensifies when Thandi, too, becomes a mother. Clemmons creates haunting authenticity by imbuing Thandi with autobiographical elements \u2013 parentage, life in Philadelphia, attending Columbia, her mother\u2019s death \u2013 but through enhanced fiction, she pushes Thandi into global citizenry, explores mother-child bonds with brutal honesty, and even reveals cancer to be \u201ca disease of privilege\u201d elevated with ribbons and campaigns.<\/p>\n

Published<\/strong>: “A Dozen Diverse Debut Novels,” The Booklist Reader,<\/em> November 7, 2017<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. White Teeth by Zadie Smith. What do these novels have in common? All were debuts, and all earned coveted awards, plaudits, and significant sales numbers. For those of you watching the prize and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43071,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,142,6,7243,6535],"tags":[7032,7606,6608,6668,7235,7609,7149,7590,7129,2598,7137,6924,6741,7316,7317,6918,7608,7184,607,7136,6925,7607,6917,7033,7435,7130,7436],"class_list":["post-43065","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-adult-readers","category-black-african-american","category-fiction","category-lists","category-repost","tag-after-disasters","tag-after-many-days","tag-bookdragon","tag-booklist","tag-booklist-reader","tag-brit-bennet","tag-derek-palacio","tag-donia-bijan","tag-everything-belongs-to-us","tag-hirsh-sawhney","tag-jimin-han","tag-jowhor-ile","tag-jung-yun","tag-leavers","tag-lisa-ko","tag-lynne-kutsukake","tag-mortifications","tag-mothers","tag-shelter","tag-small-revolution","tag-south-haven","tag-the-last-days-of-cafe-leila","tag-translation-of-love","tag-viet-dinh","tag-what-we-lose","tag-yoojin-grace-wuertz","tag-zinzi-clemmons"],"yoast_head":"\nA Dozen Diverse Debut Novels [in The Booklist Reader] - BookDragon<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/diverse-debut-novels-booklist-reader\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Dozen Diverse Debut Novels [in The Booklist Reader] - BookDragon\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen. 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