Ten Favorite Debut Books
(alphabetically by author, with a preference for books that represent a high point (if not always the absolute pinnacle) in the writers’ bibliographies)
The Mezzanine by Nicholson Baker
A Fine and Private Place by Peter S. Beagle
Continent by Jim Crace
The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides
Under the Skin by Michel Faber
A High Wind in Jamaica by Richard Hughes
The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers
Edwin Mullhouse: The Life and Death of an American Writer 1943-1954, by Jeffrey Cartwright by Steven Millhauser
Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson
CivilWarLand in Bad Decline by George Saunders
— September 5, 2021