Debutiful’s Adam Vitcavage recommends noteworthy debut books for readers to discover each month.
Lost Lambs by Madeline Cash (January 13)
From the publisher: Rippling with humor, warmth, and style, Lost Lambs is a new vision of the charms and pitfalls of family dysfunction.
What others are saying: “I can’t remember the last time a novel made me laugh so hard or feel so much tenderness for its characters.” —Leslie Jamison, author of Splinters
I first encountered Cash later than most; it was on a Zoom call with librarians and booksellers as part of a Macmillan event I help emcee. Her conversation with The Strand event director, Walker Iversen, sold me instantly on this book. The raw humor in the opening pages delivered the promise of Leslie Jamison’s blurb. This book captures the voice of her generation.
Scavengers by Kathleen Boland (January 13)
From the publisher: A rollicking debut novel about a cautious daughter and her eccentric, estranged mother venturing west in search of buried treasure—and a way back to each other—before they run out of patience, money, and options
What others are saying: “Wholly original and truly surprising, Scavengers is an ode to revisitation and reinvention, proving that changing your views of other people is the only way to change yourself. This is a desert rose of a debut.” —Courtney Maum, author of Touch and Costalegre
When I tell you I saw my mother in Boland’s mother character, I cackled. I cried. I felt something a lot of child-parent relationship books don’t give me. Boland’s characters will live with you a long time. She has a knack for reeling a reader into an intimate scene and welcoming them to the family.
The Age of Calamities by Senaa Ahmad (January 13)
From the publisher: Written by an inimitable new voice, The Age of Calamities is a genre-defying, mind-bending collection of absurdist, funny, and speculative short stories.
What others are saying: “Senaa Ahmad’s stories are dazzlingly inventive. . . .These stories make it clear how ancient history and myths still linger in contemporary life—but also propose the radical possibility that we may yet escape or alter old patterns and old wounds.” –Kelly Link, award-winning author of The Book of Love and White Cat, Black Dog
If you want a taste of Ahmad’s writing, read “Let’s Play Dead”. Ahmad bends genre but not in a “oh this is a genre-bending mash-up.” She plays with tropes and structure in a brilliant way. Each story is a masterpiece.
I Could Be Famous by Sydney Rende (January 13)
From the publisher: From a magnetic new voice in fiction “made for this moment and for those coming of age within it” (Jonathan Dee), a debut story collection following ten ambitious women and one male superstar as they pursue their desires–however deluded–for more.
What others are saying: “A terrific debut: fresh, original, and surprising. Eleven fast, sharp, funny stories laced with a deep understanding of the corrosive effect our fame-hungry attention economy has on real connection between people. Rende is such a witty, engaging writer, with an intuitive understanding that the short story is in the world to delight, engage, and enlarge the reader.” —George Saunders, Booker Prize-winning author of LINCOLN IN THE BARDO
The stories are easy in all the right ways – easy to laugh, easy to love, easy to want to re-read – and challenging in alll the right ways. Rende writes about women in such a smart way, allowing their strengths and flaws to shine equally.
Hyper by Agri Ismaïl (January 13)
From the publisher: A cutting, hypermodern saga of money, family, and survival for fans of Zadie Smith, Patricia Lockwood, and Mohsin Hamid.
What others are saying: “A tightly stitched work of melancholy wit and rueful irony that charts the fortunes of one Kurdish family across generations and geolocations. Hyper evokes what it feels like to live now: to surf on or surrender to the mercurial waves of global capital.” –Tom Benn, author of Oxblood
Longlisted for the 2025 August Prize and the 2025 Borås Tidning’s Debutant Prize, I was first tipped off to Agri Ismaïl when he was named a Writer to Watch from Poets & Writers. Coffee House has put out countless interesting debuts in recent years, and this one is going to captivate readers from start to finish.
Discipline by Larissa Pham (January 20)
From the publisher: A taut, electrifying debut about a woman forced to confront unsettling truths about herself, her past, and the life she rebuilt following a ruinous affair with her former mentor, from a “lit world phenom” (Harper’s Bazaar)
What others are saying: “Art bleeds into life in Larissa Pham’s exhilarating, exquisite book, full of an eerie intelligence and startling compassion. . . . A pitch-perfect novel.”—Ayşegül Savaş, author of The Anthropologists
I first read Pham’s work when she released her essay collection Pop Song and have been dying to read fiction from her ever since. This is a penetrating story about a woman’s past and the truth she’s spun out of it. Pham dazzles while navigating through the complexities of our pasts.
Hemlock by Melissa Faliveno (January 20)
From the publisher: A woman haunted by a dark inheritance returns to the woods where her mother vanished, in this queer Gothic novel.
What others are saying: “Gorgeous and surprising, Hemlock’s propulsive plot is fueled by equal parts Midwestern dread and Midwestern love, a combination my own Midwestern heart recognizes as home. Faliveno sets her exploration of the complicated, compelling legacies of family and place amid a great and beautiful landscape I’ve loved all my life, but that I’ve maybe never seen as vividly as I do right now, after having been shown it anew through Faliveno’s evocative prose. A spectacular debut.”–Matt Bell, author of Appleseed
Faliveno’s Tomboyland is one of my favorite nonfiction books ever. When I heard Hemlock was coming out, I put everything on pause, got a copy, and devoured it. She captures the struggles with alcohol dependencies in such a real way. The atmosphere of the Wisconsin woods propels this book to great new heights. Faliveno is a master of character and scene.
Rough House by Alison Lyn Miller (January 20)
From the publisher: Rich with drama, humor, and heart, Rough House is a ringside seat to a coming-of-age story that reveals the escapism, self-actualization, performance, and violence inherent in one of America’s most dismissed pastimes. Whether you’re a die-hard fan or new to the spectacle, this true story will leave you cheering for more.
What others are saying: “With empathy and grace and insight, driven by respectful and intimate reporting, Alison Lyn Miller pulls the curtain back on a grand American spectacle to show us all that, while suplexes and body slams can be faked, the honest human dramas that draw wrestlers to ‘this brutal ballet’ are universal and revealing.–John T. Edge, host of ESPN’s TrueSouth and author of House of Smoke: A Southerner Goes Searching for Home”
2025 was the year I fell back in love with wrestling and this book came at a perfect time. I dipped my toes into it and truly believe anyone who loves or hates professional wrestling needs to read this book.
Take It From Me by Alia Hanna Habib (January 20)
From the publisher: From the literary agent behind some of today’s most successful authors comes a narrative guide geared specifically to the needs of aspiring and working nonfiction writers, demystifying the world of publishing and offering a practical roadmap to getting your book published.
What others are saying: “I really, really wish I had this book when I was starting out.”—Robert Kolker, author of Hidden Valley Road
I have not read this yet, but based on the kinds of emails I get, this is the book every Debutiful reader/listener needs in their life. Alia Hanna Habib is a powerhouse agent and here you can learn from the best.
Just Watch Me by Lior Torenberg (January 20)
From the publisher: Fleabag meets Big Swiss in this bold debut about a charismatic misfit who livestreams her life for seven days and nights to raise money to save her comatose sister—a poignant and darkly funny exploration of grief, forgiveness, and redemption.
What others are saying: “Fans of Melissa Broder, Rufi Thorpe, and Ottessa Moshfegh will laugh, cringe, empathize, and be mesmerized by the spectacle of one woman’s attempt to solve all her financial and emotional problems in the most adventurous, public, and high-stakes way possible. Just Watch Me is addictive and propulsive.” —Emily Gould, author of Perfect Tunes
The opening pages are laugh-out-loud funny. I think writing humor is the hardest thing on the planet, and Torenberg comes out of the gate nailing it.
A Beast Slinks Towards Beijing by Alice Evelyn Yang (January 27)
From the publisher: A dark, magical realist debut family saga that moves through the Japanese occupation of Manchuria, the Cultural Revolution, and the present day to explore the effects of intergenerational trauma, the legacy of colonialism, and the inescapability of fate.
What others are saying: “Epic in scope, written with dauntless power and grace, A Beast Slinks Towards Beijing offers an unflinching look at the legacies that continue to haunt one family through a century of reckoning. Alice Evelyn Yang’s richly threaded novel sings with artful prose and unforgettable storytelling, reminding us of the promise of redemption, even amid the dark consequences of violence. This is a book that will stir you to your core.” – Thao Thai, author of Banyan Moon
This book is intoxicating. Yang will sweep you off your feet with a beautiful and thought-provoking epic.
Escape! by Stephen Fishbach (January 27)
From the publisher: A propulsive debut novel following a has-been reality TV star and a disgraced producer who get one last shot at redemption on a show set on a remote island, only to discover that the plot twists are beyond what they ever imagined.
What others are saying: “A thrilling, emotionally affecting deep dive into the perilous world of reality television production, in all its manipulative glory. In this sharp page-turner, Survivor maven and former contestant Stephen Fishbach captures the lives of both cast and crew, offering up a gorgeously written, compassionate, but ultimately devastating portrait of the lives of the human beings working inside (and often, crushed by) the entertainment machine.”
—Emily Nussbaum, author of Cue The Sun: The Invention of Reality TV and Staff Writer at The New Yorker
This is the Great American Reality TV Book we’ve been waiting for. Yes, it’s thrilling, but the best parts about it are the interiority of the characters, including players on the show and the producers behind-the-scenes. This isn’t just a reality TV novel from a guy who was on a reality TV show. This is a novel that perfectly blends beautiful literary prose with page-turning pace.
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