BookPage’s best debut novels of the 2000s

could love or love to hate—but not ignore. This ambitious coming-of-age novel is also a mystery and a touching portrayal of the father/ daughter relationship. Look for Pessl’s second novel, Night Film, in late August. Lost City Radio by Daniel Alarcón (2007) The turbulent political history of South America is not often plumbed for fiction, but Alarcón does this complicated subject White Teeth by Zadie Smith (2000) The Known World by Edward P. Jones (2003) justice—and tells a moving tale besides—in Perhaps the defining debut of the 2000s, This "staggeringly accomplished" first novel his lyrical debut, set in an unnamed South Smith's multicultural portrait of London life has a surprising historical premise: Some free American country. Alarcón’s second novel, At perfectly captured The Way We Live Now. This blacks did, in fact, own slaves themselves. Night, will be published in November. is the sort of ambitious debut that it's impos- Jones takes a clear-eyed look at this morally sible to ignore, and Smith has gone on to prove complicated time through his complex charac- Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris her talent with three more very different but ters, including Henry Townsend, whose parents (2007) equally accomplished novels. worked for years to buy his freedom only to Narrating a novel in the second-person see him enslave others, and Jim Skiffington, plural is a risky choice—especially when it's Everything Is Illuminated a local sheriff who is against slavery but must also your first book. But Ferris pulls it off by Jonathan Safran Foer (2000) uphold the laws of 1850s Virginia. with aplomb in a high-wire act of a novel that "This best-selling novel is the work of a takes a collection of office archetypes—the whiz-kid," says our review—which about sums The Curious Incident of the Dog in go-getters, the slackers, the petty tyrants—and things up. Imaginative, quirky and humorous, the Night-Time by Mark Haddon (2003) brings them to life. the novel also tackles the Jewish diaspora and Christopher Boone is 15, and an autistic the effect of the past on the present. savant. Yet his ability to name every prime The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar number doesn't help him parse the emotional Wao by Junot Díaz (2007) Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks (2001) turmoil of his home life. When he embarks on Díaz's first novel, which had been antici- Though she's now one of the leading voices a mission to find out who stabbed his neigh- pated for nearly a decade, stars an overweight in historical fiction, back in 2001 Brooks was bor's dog with a gardening fork, Christopher nerd who couldn't be more different from best known for her prize-winning work as a ends up stumbling on a much greater mystery. Yunior, the womanizing antihero introduced in correspondent for the Wall Street Journal. She Díaz's celebrated story collection, Drown. Yet broke through the fiction barrier with a bang Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell the two share a talent for falling in love. to tell this story of a small English village that by Susanna Clarke (2004) goes into quarantine when the black plague is Who would have thought that an 800-page In the Woods by Tana French (2007) discovered within its boundaries. book starring two magicians could become a Occupying the narrow territory between major bestseller? Though Clarke's epic, Dick- suspense and literary fiction, French's debut Enemy Women by Paulette Jiles (2002) ensian tale set in an alternate 1806 England is a psychologically acute, harrowing police Prize-winning poet Jiles takes on a little- might have come in on Harry Potter's coattails, procedural. As Dublin detective Rob Ryan and known slice of American history: the impris- it had a style all its own. Fans of The Night his partner and best friend Cassie Maddox in- onment of women during the Civil War. After Circus and The Golem and the Jinni—you're vestigate a 12-year-old girl's murder, Rob finds being wrongly imprisoned for spying, 18-year- welcome. that the case stirs up a childhood trauma. old Adair escapes the St. Louis prison and em- barks on a harrowing trek home to the Ozarks. The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz The Monsters of Templeton by Lauren Jiles excels at depicting the horrors of a land Zafon (2004) Groff (2008) ravaged by war, and her spirited heroine is one We readers love our books about books, and Quirky and bold, Lauren Groff's debut is readers will root for. Ruiz Zafon's first adult novel—also a bestseller both the story of an individual—Willie Upton, in his native Spain—is one of the best. A who has just discovered her father isn't the Three Junes by Julia Glass (2002) twisty tale that contains a story-within-a-story, person she thought—and a town: Templeton, An old-fashioned family drama, Glass' fiction it features a mythical "Cemetery of Forgotten in upstate New York. Told in several voices, debut is told in three parts, a triptych that Books," a reclusive author and a Barcelona still including that of the area lake monster, this is gives a full picture of the complicated bonds reeling from the Spanish Civil War. Part noir, a lively and compelling first novel. within the McLeod family—parents Paul and part coming-of-age story and part mystery, this Maureen, their oldest son Fenno and their twin is 100% page-turner. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo sons David and Dennis. by Stieg Larsson (2008) gods in Alabama by Joshilyn Jackson (2005) One of the signs of a successful novel is its The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold (2002) The somewhat staid world of Southern fic- ability to spawn imitators—and we're still feel- The brutal, violent death suffered by Se- tion got a jump-start when Jackson appeared ing the impact of Stieg Larsson's hard-boiled bold's narrator in the opening chapter sets the on the scene. Though it targets themes of Swedish thriller starring a heroine who, to put tone for this bold and visceral first novel. Susie redemption, family bonds and the weight of it mildly, doesn't take crap from anyone. Salmon is just 14 when she goes missing on the past, Jackson's writing deals honestly with the way home from school. Though her own life the South's complicated past, possesses nary a The Help by Kathryn Stockett (2009) jot of nostalgia and is anything but treacly. is over, she continues to watch the struggles of Set in Civil Rights-era Mississippi, this story her family from heaven. of the complicated relationship between white Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld (2005) Southern women and the black women who Leaving Atlanta by Tayari Jones (2002) Novels set in prep school are a dime a doz- worked for them spent months on the best- en, which makes the fact that Prep stood out seller list and became a hit film. Jones' debut is a sensitively written coming- from the crowd an even more impressive feat. of-age story, set against the backdrop of Atlan- As middle-class, Midwestern girl Lee learns to ta's African-American neighborhoods in 1979, Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese swim among the sharks at her upscale board- (2009) where black children were being murdered by ing school, Sittenfeld perfectly captures all the an infamous serial killer. This historical drama pain and drama of growing up. Like Khaled Hosseini, Verghese trained as serves to deepen Jones' careful exploration of a doctor before turning to fiction, and his first the dangers of growing up. novel stars twin siblings who both practice The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield medicine. As this epic tale unwinds across The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri (2003) (2006) continents, the conflicts between the two very Starring a bookish young heroine who gets In her first novel, Lahiri continued to show- different brothers are juxtaposed with the drawn into a Gothic mystery involving a reclu- larger crises in the outside world. case the elegant, deceptively simple writing sive female writer, this dark horse debut took that marked her Pulitzer Prize-winning story bestseller lists by storm upon publication and American Rust by Philipp Meyer (2009) collection, expanding her scope to tell the story has been a perennial hit with book clubs ever Set in Pennsylvania, in the heart of the Rust of Gogol Ganguli, the American-born son of since. Setterfield, who taught French before Belt, this literary debut portrays a disappearing traditional Indian-American immigrants. becoming a published writer, is publishing a small-town, blue-collar America. Best friends follow-up in November. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (2003) Isaac and Poe had planned to escape their dying hometown of Buell for college. But when Hosseini was a practicing physician in Cali- Special Topics in Calamity Physics these dreams are crushed, both must try to sal- fornia when he wrote The Kite Runner, a sur- by Marisha Pessl (2006) vage their futures. Meyer, whose second novel prise hit that sold more than 10 million copies Voice is a big part of what marks a debut was published in June, writes with authority, in the U.S. and illuminated Afghanistan’s as special, and the hyper-literate, exuberant, and his work has been compared to American tortured history through the tale of two boys. voice of Marisha Pessl was one that readers greats like McCarthy and Faulkner.

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