Boxall's 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die discussion

Use this Topic to discuss books you are reading or that fit the 5th Scavenger Hunt task.

Task 5: Read a debut novel.

Just finished On the Black Hill by Bruce Chatwin a few days ago. Though Chatwin was a prolific non-fiction writer, On the Black Hill was his debut as a fiction writer. In fact, the book won the Whitbread Prize in 1982 for Best 1st Novel.

Invisible Man was a debut novel.

I tend to read books chronologically so I will probably struggle with this category. I'm sure there are a lot of debuts I haven't read but as I'm trying to stick to women authors, I'll have to go through those I haven't yet read and find a debut.

EDIT: Found one, White Teeth by Zadie Smith

The Tin Flute by Gabrielle Roy is also a debut novel if you have not read it yet. (If you are looking for another book by a woman author).

I read Dusklands, J.M. Coetzee's first novel.

I read All About H. Hatterr which was the author's first novel.

I'm planning to read The Threepenny Novel by Bertolt Brecht. He was a playwright primarily and this was his only novel so it qualifies- it was based on his play The Threepenny Opera, which I think is better-known.

Marius the Epicurean by Walter Pater. This is not his first book but it is his first novel.

Are there any more hints on this? I found this super challenging.

Irem wrote: "Are there any more hints on this? I found this super challenging."

Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen, Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters, Wise Blood by Flannery O'Connor, and Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe are all debut novels off the top of my head.

Irem wrote: "Are there any more hints on this? I found this super challenging."

I have a whole shelf just for debuts, not all being Boxall titles.

Of those that there are, here are some examples (best double check to make sure they are indeed debuts):

The Bluest Eye
Dangling Man
Madame Bovary
The Sun Also Rises
The Trick is to Keep Breathing
Schooling
A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian
The House with the Blind Glass Windows
Almost Transparent Blue
Evelina
Hideous Kinky
The Path to the Spiders' Nest
Frankenstein
Go Tell It on the Mountain
Tipping the Velvet
Madame Bovary
Kitchen
Wise Blood
Like Water for Chocolate
White Teeth
Grimus
The Grass is Singing
Nip The Buds, Shoot The Kids