Below are just a few of the authors with debut books in 2018:
Golden Child by Claire Adam (releases in January) – Working exhausting hours in their rural Trinidad home, the family of a petroleum-plant worker is shattered by the disappearance of a troubled twin son whose fate forces his father to make a devastating choice.
My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite – Slasher meets satire, in this darkly comic novel set in Nigeria about a woman whose younger sister has a very inconvenient habit of killing her boyfriends.
Fruit of the Drunken Tree by Ingrid Rojas Contreras – A debut novel by an award-winning writer is set against the violence of 1990s Columbia and follows a sheltered girl and a teen maid, who forge an unlikely friendship that threatens to undo them both.
The Summer List by Amy Mason Doan – Returning home after being away for seventeen years, Laura reunites with her former best friend Casey, but while participating in a scavenger hunt, they discover the secrets of the past threatening to tear them apart again.\
The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn – An agoraphobic recluse languishes in her New York City home, drinking wine and spying on her neighbors, before witnessing a terrible crime through her window that exposes her secrets and raises questions about her perceptions of reality.
America For Beginners by Leah Franqui – A widow from India travels to California to learn the truth about what happened to the son who was declared dead shortly after he revealed his sexual orientation to their traditional family.
The Mermaid and Mrs. Hancock by Imogen Hermes Gower – When one of his trading vessels returns to 18th-century London with the remarkable body of a mermaid, Jonah gains entry into high society and falls in love with a highly accomplished courtesan, with unexpected consequences.
Lands of Lost Borders: Out of Bounds on the Silk Road by Kate Harris – An Oxford-trained scientist and award-winning writer presents an evocative travelogue and memoir of her journey by bicycle along the Silk Road and how it became synonymous with humanity’s exploration of boundaries.
The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang – A 30-year-old math whiz with Asperger’s tries to make her love life as rich as her career by hiring an escort to help her with her lack of knowledge and experience in the dating department.
How Are You Going to Save Yourself by J.M. Holmes – Four friends come of age in a Rhode Island postindustrial enclave and struggle to liberate themselves from the limitations imposed on African Americans while navigating the dynamics of sex, drugs, class and family.
Darius the Great is Not Okay by Adib Khorram – A Persian-American youth who prefers pop culture to the traditions of his mixed family struggles with clinical depression and the misunderstandings of older relatives while bonding with a boy who helps him embrace his Iranian heritage.
If You Leave Me by Crystal Hana Kim – Forced into the life of a refugee when the North Korean army invades her home, 16-year-old Haemi is forced to choose between love and security in ways that resonate throughout generations of her family.
Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother’s Will to Survive by Stephanie Land – An economic-hardship journalist describes the years she worked in low-pay domestic work under wealthy employers, contrasting the privileges of the upper-middle class to the realities of the overworked laborers supporting them.
Everything Here is Beautiful by Mira T. Lee – The bond between a responsible, self-contained older sister and her mentally ill, impulsive younger sister is shaped and tested over years marked by the loss of their mother, an impetuous first marriage, a fling that results in the birth of a baby and painful sacrifices.
Heart Berries: A Memoir by Terese Marie Mailhot – The author recounts her coming of age on the Seabird Island Indian Reservation in the Pacific Northwest where she survived a dysfunctional childhood and found herself hospitalized with a dual diagnosis of PTSD and bipolar II disorder.
Ohio by Stephen Markley – Four former classmates converge on their recession- and opioid-ravaged hometown on a fateful summer night that finds them pursuing respective goals based on haunting memories from their shared past.
Intercepted by Alexa Martin – After discovering that her NFL boyfriend was cheating, Marlee Harper vows to never date another athlete, but when she becomes involved with Gavin Pope, a star quarterback who wants to prove that he is different, the wives of the other teammates make difficulties for her and Gavin.
Bearskin by James A. McLaughlin – Hiding out from the Mexican drug cartels he betrayed in Arizona while protecting a remote forest preserve in Virginian Appalachia, Rice More exposes a bear-poaching scheme that reveals his location to the criminals he was running from in the first place.
Gunpowder Moon by David Pedreira – In the year 2072, chief of U.S. lunar mining operations at the edge of the Sea of Serenity Caden Dechert must respond to the death of one of his diggers and solve the first murder on the Moon before more blood is spilled.
Hearts of the Missing by Carol Potenza – A prize-winning debut novel follows the experiences of Pueblo Police Sergeant Nicky Matthews, who investigates a personally relevant case involving the serial murders of genetic members of the Fire-Sky tribe by a killer who also deliberately violates spiritual laws.
Between Earth and Sky by Amanda Skenandore – In 1906 Philadelphia, when her childhood friend, Harry Muskrat, is accused of murdering a federal agent, Alma Mitchel convinces her lawyer husband to defend him, which forces her to revisit the past and confront painful secrets from a childhood spent in the wake of the Indian Wars.
House of Stone by Novuyo Rosa Tshuma (releases in January) – After their son, Bukhosi, disappears in the chronic turmoil of modern Zimbabwe, Abednego and Agnes Mlambo receive help from their enigmatic lodger, Zamani.
The 7 1/2 Death of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton – Doomed to repeat the same day over and over, Aiden Bishop must solve the murder of Evelyn Hardcastle in order to escape the curse, in a world filled with enemies where nothing and no one are quite what they seem.
The Book of Essie by Meghan Maclean Weir – The 17-year-old daughter of an evangelical preacher, star of the family’s hit reality show, has a secret pregnancy that threatens to blow their entire world apart.
Golden Child by Claire Adam (releases in January) – Working exhausting hours in their rural Trinidad home, the family of a petroleum-plant worker is shattered by the disappearance of a troubled twin son whose fate forces his father to make a devastating choice.
My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite – Slasher meets satire, in this darkly comic novel set in Nigeria about a woman whose younger sister has a very inconvenient habit of killing her boyfriends.
Fruit of the Drunken Tree by Ingrid Rojas Contreras – A debut novel by an award-winning writer is set against the violence of 1990s Columbia and follows a sheltered girl and a teen maid, who forge an unlikely friendship that threatens to undo them both.
The Summer List by Amy Mason Doan – Returning home after being away for seventeen years, Laura reunites with her former best friend Casey, but while participating in a scavenger hunt, they discover the secrets of the past threatening to tear them apart again.\
The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn – An agoraphobic recluse languishes in her New York City home, drinking wine and spying on her neighbors, before witnessing a terrible crime through her window that exposes her secrets and raises questions about her perceptions of reality.
America For Beginners by Leah Franqui – A widow from India travels to California to learn the truth about what happened to the son who was declared dead shortly after he revealed his sexual orientation to their traditional family.
The Mermaid and Mrs. Hancock by Imogen Hermes Gower – When one of his trading vessels returns to 18th-century London with the remarkable body of a mermaid, Jonah gains entry into high society and falls in love with a highly accomplished courtesan, with unexpected consequences.
Lands of Lost Borders: Out of Bounds on the Silk Road by Kate Harris – An Oxford-trained scientist and award-winning writer presents an evocative travelogue and memoir of her journey by bicycle along the Silk Road and how it became synonymous with humanity’s exploration of boundaries.
The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang – A 30-year-old math whiz with Asperger’s tries to make her love life as rich as her career by hiring an escort to help her with her lack of knowledge and experience in the dating department.
How Are You Going to Save Yourself by J.M. Holmes – Four friends come of age in a Rhode Island postindustrial enclave and struggle to liberate themselves from the limitations imposed on African Americans while navigating the dynamics of sex, drugs, class and family.
Darius the Great is Not Okay by Adib Khorram – A Persian-American youth who prefers pop culture to the traditions of his mixed family struggles with clinical depression and the misunderstandings of older relatives while bonding with a boy who helps him embrace his Iranian heritage.
If You Leave Me by Crystal Hana Kim – Forced into the life of a refugee when the North Korean army invades her home, 16-year-old Haemi is forced to choose between love and security in ways that resonate throughout generations of her family.
Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother’s Will to Survive by Stephanie Land – An economic-hardship journalist describes the years she worked in low-pay domestic work under wealthy employers, contrasting the privileges of the upper-middle class to the realities of the overworked laborers supporting them.
Everything Here is Beautiful by Mira T. Lee – The bond between a responsible, self-contained older sister and her mentally ill, impulsive younger sister is shaped and tested over years marked by the loss of their mother, an impetuous first marriage, a fling that results in the birth of a baby and painful sacrifices.
Heart Berries: A Memoir by Terese Marie Mailhot – The author recounts her coming of age on the Seabird Island Indian Reservation in the Pacific Northwest where she survived a dysfunctional childhood and found herself hospitalized with a dual diagnosis of PTSD and bipolar II disorder.
Ohio by Stephen Markley – Four former classmates converge on their recession- and opioid-ravaged hometown on a fateful summer night that finds them pursuing respective goals based on haunting memories from their shared past.
Intercepted by Alexa Martin – After discovering that her NFL boyfriend was cheating, Marlee Harper vows to never date another athlete, but when she becomes involved with Gavin Pope, a star quarterback who wants to prove that he is different, the wives of the other teammates make difficulties for her and Gavin.
Bearskin by James A. McLaughlin – Hiding out from the Mexican drug cartels he betrayed in Arizona while protecting a remote forest preserve in Virginian Appalachia, Rice More exposes a bear-poaching scheme that reveals his location to the criminals he was running from in the first place.
Gunpowder Moon by David Pedreira – In the year 2072, chief of U.S. lunar mining operations at the edge of the Sea of Serenity Caden Dechert must respond to the death of one of his diggers and solve the first murder on the Moon before more blood is spilled.
Hearts of the Missing by Carol Potenza – A prize-winning debut novel follows the experiences of Pueblo Police Sergeant Nicky Matthews, who investigates a personally relevant case involving the serial murders of genetic members of the Fire-Sky tribe by a killer who also deliberately violates spiritual laws.
Between Earth and Sky by Amanda Skenandore – In 1906 Philadelphia, when her childhood friend, Harry Muskrat, is accused of murdering a federal agent, Alma Mitchel convinces her lawyer husband to defend him, which forces her to revisit the past and confront painful secrets from a childhood spent in the wake of the Indian Wars.
House of Stone by Novuyo Rosa Tshuma (releases in January) – After their son, Bukhosi, disappears in the chronic turmoil of modern Zimbabwe, Abednego and Agnes Mlambo receive help from their enigmatic lodger, Zamani.
The 7 1/2 Death of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton – Doomed to repeat the same day over and over, Aiden Bishop must solve the murder of Evelyn Hardcastle in order to escape the curse, in a world filled with enemies where nothing and no one are quite what they seem.
The Book of Essie by Meghan Maclean Weir – The 17-year-old daughter of an evangelical preacher, star of the family’s hit reality show, has a secret pregnancy that threatens to blow their entire world apart.