Omaha Reading Challenge 2019: Debut NovelLike this list

26 items

• There There

  Orange, Tommy, 1982-

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  A multi-generational, relentlessly paced story about violence and recovery, hope and loss, identity and power, dislocation and communion, and the beauty and despair woven into the history of a nation and its people.

• Cherry

  Walker, Nico,

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  Hammered out on a typewriter, Cherry marks the arrival of a raw, bleakly hilarious, and surprisingly poignant voice straight from the dark heart of America.

• The Incendiaries

  Kwon, R. O.,

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  A young Korean-American woman at an elite American university is drawn into acts of domestic terrorism by a cult tied to North Korea and then disappears, leading a fellow student into an obsessive search for her.

• Song of a Captive Bird

  a Novel

  Darznik, Jasmin, 1973-

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  This haunting novel uses the lens of fiction to capture the tenacity, spirit, and conflicting desires of a brave woman who represents the birth of feminism in Iran, and who continues to inspire generations of women around the world.

• The Golden State

  Kiesling, Lydia, 1984-

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  In Lydia Kiesling's debut novel, we accompany Daphne, a young mother on the edge of a breakdown, as she flees her sensible but strained life in San Francisco for the high desert of Altavista with her toddler, Honey. Bucking under the…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Everything Under

  a Novel

  Johnson, Daisy, 1990-

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  Gretel, a lexicographer by trade, grew up on a houseboat with her mother, wandering the canals of Oxford and speaking a private language of their own invention. Her mother disappeared when Gretel was a teen, abandoning her to foster care,…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Asymmetry

  Halliday, Lisa,

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  Told in three distinct and uniquely compelling sections, Asymmetry explores the imbalances that spark and sustain many of our most dramatic human relations: inequities in age, power, talent, wealth, fame, geography, and justice.

• Freshwater

  Emezi, Akwaeke,

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  Freshwater explores the surreal experience of having a fractured self. It centers around a young Nigerian woman, Ada, who develops separate selves within her as a result of being born "with one foot on the other side."

• The House of Impossible Beauties

  Cassara, Joseph,

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  A gritty and gorgeous debut that follows a cast of gay and transgender club kids navigating the Harlem ball scene of the 80s and 90s, inspired by the real House of Xtravaganza made famous by the seminal documentary "Paris is Burning."

• Sophia of Silicon Valley

  Yen, Anna,

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  During the heady years of the tech boom, incorrigibly frank Sophia Young lucks into a job that puts her directly in the path of Scott Kraft, the eccentric CEO of Treehouse, a studio whose animated films are transforming movies forever.…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Brass

  a Novel

  Aliu, Xhenet, 1978-

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  A fierce debut novel about mothers and daughters, haves and have-nots, and the stark realities behind the American Dream.

• Children of Blood and Bone

  Adeyemi, Tomi,

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  Seventeen-year-old Zélie, her older brother Tzain, and rogue princess Amari fight to restore magic to the land and activate a new generation of magi, but they are ruthlessly pursued by the crown prince, who believes the return of magic…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Other Side of Everything

  a Novel

  Owens, Lauren Doyle, 1978-

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  Laura Lippman meets Megan Abbott in this suspenseful literary debut about three generations of neighbors whose lives intersect in the aftermath of a crime.

• The Philosopher's Flight

  a Novel

  Miller, Tom, 1980-

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  Eighteen-year-old Robert Weekes is a practitioner of empirical philosophy--an arcane, female-dominated branch of science used to summon the wind, shape clouds of smoke, heal the injured, and even fly. Though he dreams of fighting in the…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Lido

  a Novel

  Page, Libby,

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  The Lido is a charming, feel-good novel that captures the heart and spirit of a community across generations--an irresistible tale of love, loss, aging, and friendship.

• The Storm

  a Novel

  Anwar, Arif,

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  Seamlessly interweaves five love stories that, together, chronicle sixty years of Bangladeshi history.

• Welcome to Lagos

  Onuzo, Chibundu,

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  Welcome to Lagos is a high-spirited novel about aspirations and escape, innocence and corruption. Full of humor and heart, it offers a provocative portrait of contemporary Nigeria that marks the arrival in the United States of an…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Immortalists

  Benjamin, Chloe,

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  It's 1969 in New York City's Lower East Side, and word has spread of the arrival of a mystical woman, a traveling psychic who claims to be able to tell anyone the day they will die. The Gold children--four adolescents on the cusp of…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Ensemble

  Gabel, Aja,

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  Forging a familial bond over their shared artistic talents and secrets, four young people navigate a cutthroat world and their complex relationships with each other, as ambition, passion, and love reinforce and divide them throughout the…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Kiss Quotient

  Hoang, Helen,

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  A heartwarming and refreshing debut novel that proves one thing: there's not enough data in the world to predict what will make your heart tick.