The Best Books of 2020: Debut Fiction!

2020 was a bounteous year for debut fiction, but it was also a more fractious one than any previous year in the history of publishing. the American market, yes, and that’s always a thing worth celebrating. But at the same time, in a great many cases, those debut novels were written by arrogant MFA teenagers in the rare spare moments stolen from their primary job of declaring on Twitter  a) their own brilliance and b) the racism of their detractors. It can be tough to muster gratitude for that sort of bounty, but luckily, a list emerged even so!

10 The Town by Shaun Prescott (FSG)

First on our list this year is something of an elder statesman among the debuts, since Shaun Prescott’s taut story of a nondescript Australian dirt-town literally being consumed by its own past originally appeared a couple of years ago. But this is its US debut, and it’s as powerful a work of dystopian accountability now as it was in 2017.

9 Under the Rainbow by Celia Laskey (Riverhead Books)

In another work of small-town accountability, this subtly powerful novel by Celia Laskey takes place in Big Burr, Kansas, which has recently won a distinction nobody wants: most homophobic town in America. When a kind of gay strike force is sent to the town in response, a multifaceted story unfolds that Laskey could easily have played for cheap laughs but steadfastly refused to do so.

8 How Much of These Hills Is Gold by C Pam Zhang (Riverhead Books)

The word used most often by the book-chat world when describing Zhang’s debut novel about two immigrant siblings navigating an at times weird 19th century American landscape has been “fierce,” and what can be said about this? Sometimes, even the book-chat world picks just the right word. Zhang’s novel is lean and utterly uncompromising.

7 Boys of Alabama by Genevieve Hudson (Liveright)

This story of a young man named Max who arrives in Alabama with a variety of closely-held secrets and a strong desire to find friendship is a beautifully, intricately told coming-of-age story with enough heart (and well-orchestrated plot-twists) to win over even the most cynical reader of literary fiction.

6 Swimming in the Dark by Tomasz Jedrowski (Morrow)

Jedrowski’s teen-love-and-lust story is set against the backdrop of the tottering Communist rule of 1980s Poland, and amidst many amazingly assured qualities, the book’s skill at showing the organic development of a single relationship over time is the most memorable. 

5 Saltwater by Jessica Andrews (FSG)

Lucy, the perfectly-realized main character in this wonderfully smart debut, is re-inventing herself in a small house in Donegal that’s suffused with memories of her beloved mother. Jessica Andrews fills the relatively simple outlines of her story with lovely restrained prose and rich wisdom.

4 The Beauty of Your Face by Sahar Mustafah (WW Norton)

A terrifyingly-dramatized school shooting - and the confrontation between the shooter and the daughter of Palestinian immigrants - beats at the heart of this amazing, adroit novel about the fragility of national identity and the immigrant experience more broadly. 

3 Follow Me to the Ground by Sue Rainsford (Scribner)

This mesmerizing, often surreal debut is one of a few prominent volumes this year to feature fantasy elements woven more or less seamlessly into a real-world plot, in this case one centering around a weird character named Ada, who can cure illnesses and whose unfoldingly complicated love affair folds and re-folds the plot in marvelous ways.

2 Kingdomtide by Rye Curtis (Little, Brown)

Two narrative poles define this engrossing debut: the sole survivor of a plane crash now wandering around in the harsh landscape of the Bitterroot Mountains, and the park ranger who becomes increasingly obsessed with saving that survivor. Rye Curtis plays on the tension between these two poles with an arresting degree of confidence, and the result is an arresting debut.

1 Sharks in the Time of Saviors by Kawai Strong Washburn (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

Some of the familiar elements in this year’s roster of debuts - coming-of-age structures, fantasy elements, larger-than-life folkloric resonances - combine superbly in this, the year’s best debut novel, about a myth-haunted trio of Hawaiian siblings grappling with the twin demands of independence and familial obligations. Kawai Strong Washburn wraps all these elements into a story that feels convincingly timeless.