Debut Books

Rewrite – Temenuga Trifonova

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Trifonova forces the reader to reassess the opinions and institutions that validate the knowledge we have both of ourselves and of others.

The Maggot People – Henning Koch

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Serious, grotesque absurdity: The Master and Margarita as written by William Burroughs, a politico-religious sci-fi thriller with talking dogs and immortal maggot people.

The Wallcreeper – Nell Zink

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David Sedaris once quipped that speaking German is like speaking English but sideways. Reading The Wallcreeper — which happens, incidentally, to be set in mostly German-speaking places — feels like reading but sideways.

The Last Projector – David James Keaton

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Everything from car accidents and vicious dog attacks to a broken penis and punches to the face are hurled at the reader without any time for rest.

McGlue – Ottessa Moshfegh

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McGlue is covered in a lush filth.

A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing – Eimear McBride

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If the prose style we encounter is initially resistant to our usual expectations, it acquires its own kind of clarity in advancing the narrative.

Consumed – David Cronenberg

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Consumed’s treatment of exotic and unusual STDs, the line between mental illness and unpleasant insight, uneasy sex, and gore is assured and well executed.

The Future for Curious People – Gregory Sherl

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Let’s just say that if this book were turned into a sitcom or a summer blockbuster, it would star Zooey Deschanel and Paul Rudd.

Fourteen Stories, None of Them Are Yours – Luke B. Goebel

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Short sentences are followed by half-page, single-sentence paragraphs that read like David Foster Wallace channeling Hunter S. Thompson.

Ancient Oceans of Central Kentucky – David Connerley Nahm

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As dazzling and unsettling as a lone firework suddenly bursting — then just as quickly vanishing — on an otherwise dark, quiet night.