Debut Novel

All great fiction writers start with a first novel - the seed of a flourishing literary career. Read and enjoy! Plant a seed, read!

Updated May 3, 2026
LINCC (Libraries in Clackamas County) Milwaukie Ledding Library
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Debut Novel

All great fiction writers start with a first novel - the seed of a flourishing literary career. Read and enjoy! Plant a seed, read!

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Things fall apart
Achebe, Chinua.
Paper Book
"A true classic of world literature . . . A masterpiece that has inspired generations of writers in Nigeria, across Africa, and around the world." --Barack Obama "African literature is incomplete and unthinkable without the works of Chinua Achebe." --Toni Morrison "A...
The Martian chronicles
Bradbury, Ray
Paper Book
Leaving behind a world on the brink of destruction, man came to the Red planet and found the Martians waiting, dreamlike. Seeking the promise of a new beginning, man brought with him his oldest fears and his deepest desires. Man conquered Mars—and in that instant, Mars conquered him. The...
Jane Eyre
Brontë, Charlotte
Paper Book
A Victorian governess's love for her mysterious employer is threatened by the tragic secret of his mansion.
Geek love
Dunn, Katherine
Paper Book
National Book Award Finalist * Here is the unforgettable story of the Binewskis, a circus-geek family whose matriarch and patriarch have bred their own exhibit of human oddities--with the help of amphetamines, arsenic, and radioisotopes. One of The Atlantic's Great...
Neuromancer
Gibson, William
Paper Book
SPECIAL 20TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION --THE MOST IMPORTANT AND INFLUENTIAL SCIENCE FICTION NOVEL OF THE PAST TWO DECADES Twenty years ago, it was as if someone turned on a light. The future blazed into existence with each deliberate word that William Gibson laid down. The winner of...
Red harvest
Hammett, Dashiell
Paper Book
From one of the great pioneers of detective stories, a classic novel reissued with a new introduction by S.A. Cosby The steadfast and sturdy Continental Op has been summoned to the town of Personville--known as Poisonville--a dusty mining community splintered by competing...
Catch-22
Heller, Joseph.
Paper Book
Named one of America's best-loved novels by PBS's The Great American Read * One of The Atlantic's Great American Novels of the Past 100 Years One of the funniest books ever written, Joseph Heller's masterpiece about a bomber squadron in the Second World War's...
Big chief
Hickey, Jon
Paper Book
Named a Most Anticipated Book of 2025 by The Washington Post, Debutiful, San Francisco Chronicle, Los Angeles Times, and LitHub Publishers Weekly Writer to Watch for Spring 2025 "Propulsive...a masterclass...a dazzling,...
Strangers on a train
Highsmith, Patricia
Paper Book
The world of Patricia Highsmith has always been filled with ordinary people, all of whom are capable of very ordinary crimes. This theme was present from the beginning, when her debut, Strangers on a Train, galvanized the reading public. Here we encounter Guy Haines and Charles Anthony Bruno,...
The outsiders
Hinton, S. E.
Paper Book
THE ICONIC INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER WITH OVER 25 MILLION COPIES SOLD * The inspiration for the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical! A heroic coming-of-age novel revolving around friendship, belonging, and brotherhood that has touched the hearts of readers for generations. "...
The snow child : a novel
Ivey, Eowyn.
Paper Book
In this magical debut, a couple's lives are changed forever by the arrival of a little girl, wild and secretive, on their snowy doorstep. Alaska, 1920: a brutal place to homestead, and especially tough for recent arrivals Jack and Mabel. Childless, they are drifting apart -- he...
The heart is a lonely hunter
McCullers, Carson
Paper Book
The god of small things
Roy, Arundhati
Paper Book
BOOKER PRIZE WINNER * NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * An affluent Indian family is forever changed by one fateful day in 1969, from the author of The Ministry of Utmost Happiness and Mother Mary Comes to Me "[The God of Small Things] offers such...
The secret history
Tartt, Donna.
Paper Book
ONE OF TIME MAGAZINE'S 100 BEST MYSTERY AND THRILLER BOOKS OF ALL TIME * INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER * A contemporary literary classic and "an accomplished psychological thriller ... absolutely chilling" (Village Voice), from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Goldfinch. ...
Maisie Dobbs : a novel
Winspear, Jacqueline
Paper Book
She started as a maid in an aristocratic London household; studied her way into prestigious Girton College at Cambridge; then became a front-line nurse in World War I. There she found - and lost - an important part of herself. Now she has set up on her own as a private investigator, one who has...
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