Isn’t author discovery a beautiful thing? What a joy to lock into a writer’s style, story, voice, themes and characters to the point where you can’t wait for his or her next work to come out.
Author discovery, of course, is a lot easier for the reader than the author looking to get discovered. That’s because it’s such a competitive, crowded world out there. Consider that some 1.8 million self-published titles alone hit the shelves every year, to say nothing of the many books from all traditional publishers of every shape and size.
While BookTrib gives coverage to the well-known authors every week, our charter is to celebrate debut and emerging authors – the many lesser-known talents out there who are master wordsmiths with great stories to tell. But they have to work harder than the literary household names to find an audience to tell them to.
In this season of giving, I’d like to share with you 16 books that found a place in my heart in 2019. Among them are seven works of fiction, six nonfiction, one a little bit of both, one nonfiction graphic novel, and one children’s book. You likely haven’t heard of their authors, but someday, at least for my money, you surely will.
Carnevale by Peter Fortunato
This debut novel starts with a craps game and a red and white snake in a mayonnaise jar. But it moves quickly to art, love, amphibians, the beautiful Gracie Laporta, the bewildering Leo Declare, Renaissance painters, philosophers, Tarot cards, a Ouija board, dreams, voyeurism and Debussy’s “Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun.” A coming-of-age story about a young Italian-American boy who grew up at the family-owned inn in New York’s Hudson Valley. But it’s so much more.
The Parrot’s Perch by Karen Keilt
Keilt offers a brave and detailed account of how she and her newlywed husband Rick Sage were illegally incarcerated on trumped-up drug charges, tortured for 45 horrific days by the Brazilian police and then forced to rebuild their broken selves without retribution from Brazilian authorities or answers from her own complicated family.
I Am Not Your Slave by Tupa Tjipombo and Chris Lockhart
Set in the unforgiving vastness of wind-swept and drought-ravaged South Africa, there are unspeakable acts of depravity and cruelty in this memoir by Tupa Tjipombo (and Chris Lockhart). It is hard to read, harder yet to believe that there are men in this world who can be so sadistic, so bestial, women who aid and abet them, and victims who are strong enough to endure the torture and degradation.
The Seamstress by Allison Pittman
It’s the French Revolution. A young woman is in line for the guillotine, and she’s the last person to speak to Sydney Carton, also awaiting execution, who she recognizes as an imposter taking the place of someone else. They give each other comfort. While this girl, a seamstress, only surfaces for a brief cameo at the very end of Dickens’s A Tale of Two Cities, she is brought to life here as the protagonist in a tale of her own.
The Pain Colony by Shanon Hunt
A pharmaceutical industry executive for 15 years, Hunt has parlayed a powerful gene-editing mechanism called CRISPR with her own experience of cutting-edge medical advances into an edge-of-your-seat debut suspense thriller. Her work shows that even a debut author with a strong sense of craft can successfully crack the medical thriller category.
Howard and Debbie by Max Mobley
Mobley shines in this offbeat debut about a loser who sets out to meet his virtual date from an pornographic online chat room in the early days of the internet. Weird but sensitive characters; a fast-moving plot; plenty of surprises; and a precise injection of humor to balance some gripping moments.
The Restless Hungarian by Tom Weidlinger
This is the saga of an extraordinary life set against the history of the rise of modernism, the Jewish Diaspora, and the Cold War. A Hungarian Jew whose inquiring spirit helped him to escape the Holocaust, Paul Weidlinger became one of the most creative structural engineers of the twentieth century.
The Hierophant Card by Bevan Atkinson
Did Thalia Thalassos try to kill her cheating husband, despite her denials? Why is nurse Bryce Gilbertson giving a false name to visitors as he roams hospital hallways with a deadly syringe in his pocket? In this sixth Tarot Mystery, Xana Bard must use her tarot-trained intuition to unravel the truth from its nest of lies. A delightful cozy mystery full of wit and charm.
A Knife in the Fog by Bradley Harper
Imagine Sherlock Holmes creator Arthur Conan Doyle teaming up with radical social critic Margaret Harkness to find and apprehend the yet-unnamed Jack the Ripper. This has all the wild, untamed energy of a “what if?” historical fiction novel despite being brilliantly grounded in real and visceral Victorian London.
Black & Blue by Andra Douglas
The author, who grew up in the South where football was a religion and a male sport, writes an important story of breaking societal norms, battling stereotypical prejudices, and coming to terms with what defines you as a person.
This Will Never Stop by Joan Spilman
The words of the title are spoken by Carmen Amber, the character around whom most of the book revolves. Her mother, Lizzie, has hold of her wrist. “This has to stop,” she tells her daughter: the drinking, the grieving, the locked doors and child neglect. It has to stop. But it doesn’t.
Too Much of Not Enough by Jane Pollak
Heartfelt, humorous and always authentic, Pollak writes an elegant memoir of trying to come to terms with a marriage gone south. It documents the process of divorce, moving into her own apartment, and slowly entering the 60-year-old singles scene in pursuit of another mate. Has readers begging for a happy ending.
Beneath the Flames by Gregory Renz
Renz applies first-hand experience as a decorated firefighter to his searing, emotional debut novel. We are able to glimpse the trials of an emotionally and physically demanding vocation – one steeped in morality, heartbreak, physical challenges and the pressure of split-second decisions that mean life or death.
Survivors of the Holocaust by Kath Shackleton
There is no easy way to educate children about the Holocaust. Yet this extraordinary work in the form of a nonfiction graphic novel for children is a valiant attempt to do just that. It tells the true stories of six Jewish children and young people who survived the Holocaust, from their own recollections.
The Jolt Felt Around the World by Susanna Shetley
This is a wonderful story with important messages for children. Young readers will be lured in by the superb illustrations and then taken on an exciting, educational journey that captures their interest with an intriguing plot and great insights and lessons about the world around them.
The Last Chapter by Michelle Alstead
A single mother of a son with a genius-level IQ and autism struggles between her love interest and the child who needs her. Alstead knows and understands her character and the subject matter: She has lived it.
