In honour of all those aspiring authors scribbling away on their NaNoWriMo — that’s National Novel Writing Month — novels this month, I’d like to salute some of 2015’s debut authors and their fantastic first works.
Sorcerer to the Crown by Zen Cho is perfect for those pining for a sequel to Susanna Clarke’s Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. Cho’s novel of magic and manners set in Regency, England follows freed slave and magician Zacharias Wythe. Named Sorcerer Royal of the Unnatural Philosophers of England after the mysterious death of his mentor, Wythe must contend with prejudiced fellow magicians and the looming magic crisis. His quest to uncover the reason for the magical shortage puts him in the path of human whirlwind, Prunella Gentleman, who will turn his life and England upside down.
Sara has not yet decided whether she likes books or people best. In Katarina Bivald’s The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend, Sara’s solitary existence in Sweden is brightened only by her correspondence with Amy, a fellow bookstore owner in an Iowa small town. When her bookstore is closed down, Sara needs a change of scene and decides to visit Amy for a reading vacation. When she reaches the tiny town of Broken Wheel, she arrives just in time for Amy’s funeral. But the townsfolk decide that they aren’t going to let their first tourist in a decade leave and conspire to keep Sara forever.
Readers who want an experience akin to a languid sail down a golden river should climb aboard Nina George’s English-language debut The Little Paris Bookshop. Parisians suffering from maladies of the soul find their way onto Monsieur Perdu’s floating bookshop, where the literary apothecary prescribes the perfect books to restore the reader to health. But Perdu cannot find the book to mend his own broken heart, which was shattered when his lover left without warning one night 10 years earlier. When he discovers a letter that she left for him on the day of her departure, he embarks on a beautiful journey for answers.
Author Patricia Park transports Jane Eyre from the moors of England to Flushing, Queens in her fascinating reimagining of a classic, Re Jane. Jane Re is a half-Korean, half-American orphan who is dependent on the grudging generosity of her uncle and his family. After failing to secure a plum job after graduation, Jane finds herself suffocating in her uncle’s grocery store while watching her friends begin their own adult lives away from Flushing. In desperation, she becomes a nanny to the Mazer-Farley family in Queens. By day, she takes care of their adopted Chinese daughter and is schooled in feminist theory by the intense Beth Mazer. By night, she spills her soul to the gruff and masculine Ed Farley. When a family crisis forces her to travel to Seoul, she must confront her family’s past and determine her own future.
Be inspired by these first novels, discover more and learn about NaNoWriMo at your local library.
A Good Read is a column by Tri-City librarians that is published on Wednesdays. Corene Maret Brown works at Port Moody Public Library.
