I read a LOT of debut novels, and am constantly on the lookout for new titles on the horizon that strike my fancy. Here are a couple of historical fiction debuts that I've got my eye on next month, both of which may be excellent book club picks, too.
The Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella Fortuna, by Juliet Grames. This richly imagined debut is based on the story of the author's own grandmother. Beautiful, smart and determined, Stella Fortuna grows up in a mountain village in early 20th-century Italy. Her father suspects her of being cursed, as she won't succumb to patriarchal expectations, and word travels quickly in their small village. When the family immigrates to Connecticut just before World War II, it's not the land of opportunity they'd imagined, and Stella continues to defy expectations and accidents alike in order to protect her younger sister. It's only as forced marriages separate the two that the close-knit sisters slowly lose touch. I'm recommending this particularly for fans of Kate Atkinson (Life After Life, etc.)
The Confessions of Frannie Langton, by Sara Collins. Collins's debut is a historical murder mystery the likes of which I've yet to run across (though it does remind me a bit of Margaret Atwood's Alias Grace). After growing up in Jamaica in the early 1800s as the slave of John Langton, Frannie accompanies John to London after his plantation harvest burns. There she is gifted to John's fellow scientist, George Benham and his wife Meg. George asks Frannie to spy on Meg, but Frannie and Meg soon wind up with a very different relationship. After the Benham's turn up dead, Frannie is immediately held as a suspect, but was she actually involved?
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