8 up-and-coming novelists to check out this National Author’s Day
We might spend hours glued to our phones these days, but the humble novel isn’t going down without a fight-and curling up with a good book can be the perfect antidote to the stresses of student life.
2019 has seen so many amazing debuts and sophomore works. So here’s our exclusive list of eight fantastic up-and-coming novelists you absolutely have to check out, to celebrate this year’s National Author’s Day.
Samira Ahmed
Published this year: Internment
Fresh from the success of her Young Adult debut Love, Hate and Other Filters, this Indian-born Illinois novelist doesn’t pull any punches in Internment, a near-future dystopia in which American Muslims have all been placed in internment camps. It made it to #4 on the New York Times Young Adult Hardcover Bestseller list and has already been optioned by two production companies-so the film adaptation could well be in the works by the time you’ve finished reading it.
Oyinkan Braithwaite
Published this year: My Sister, the Serial Killer
A combination of satire and slasher, Braithwaite’s insanely successful debut follows two siblings, one of whom has the unfortunate habit of killing her boyfriends. Exploring hard-hitting themes such as violence against women alongside a heavy dose of black comedy, it’s been translated into nine languages and, with the film rights already purchased, this novelists star is definitely rising.
Sabina Khan
Published this year: The Love and Lies of Rukhsana Ali
We’re thrilled to share our exclusive Q&A with @TeenBookCon author @Sabina_Writer! 😍 Her book, THE LOVE AND LIES OF RUKHSANA ALI, has been getting all kinds of buzz-for good reason. Check it out!
Sabina Khan on #TeenBookCon, Creativity, and RUKHSANA ALI https://t.co/Wp7QiGmSmy pic.twitter.com/sDRij3qZOw
- Blue Willow Bookshop (@BlueWillowBooks) March 11, 2019
Another YA, following the trials and tribulations of a Bengali American teenager who’s packed off to Bangladesh after her parents have a less-than-positive reaction to the fact that she’s a lesbian. Khan came to write the novel after her daughter came out as bisexual, and she realised that there was a disappointing shortage of novelists who had included Muslim LGBTQ+ characters in their books for them to read together.
Rosie Price
Published this year: What Red Was
A young student is drawn into the glamorous world of a film director and her charismatic son but has nowhere to turn when she is sexually assaulted by one of their inner circle. Price’s debut work is especially timely when set in the context of the #MeToo movement-which is even more hard-hitting when you consider that Price is a rape survivor herself.
Beth O’Leary
Published this year: The Flatshare
I don’t even know what to say. Utterly, utterly blown away.
Thank you SO MUCH to the incredible team at @QuercusBooks, and to everybody who has bought, shouted about and reviewed The Flatshare. You are ALL WONDERFUL 😭😍 https://t.co/yo0oX7m8qk
- Beth O’Leary (@OLearyBeth) April 24, 2019
Sure to touch a nerve with anyone who’s dealt with the sheer awfulness of renting in London, O’Leary’s debut explores the relationship, and bizarrely intertwined-yet-separate lives, of a publicist and a night nurse who decide to save money by sharing a one-bedroom flat. It’s been snapped up for a six-figure sum, and O’Leary has quit her job to write full-time, so expect more from her in future.
Jessica Andrews
Published this year: Saltwater
A bildungsroman (that’s a coming of age novel, for everyone who isn’t a massive nerd) about a young working-class woman who moves from Sunderland to study in London. It has a fragmentary, introspective style that might feel a bit weird if you’re not used to more experimental novels, but it’s had great reviews and, taking unflinching looks at disability, alcoholism, mother-daughter relationships and more-well worth a read.
Laura Bates
Published this year: The Burning
Don’t miss this amazing YA Lit Day line-up @southbankcentre @litsouthbank Including our own LAURA BATES @EverydaySexism talking about THE BURNING https://t.co/xOdPIlq0eh #TheBurning #YABooks pic.twitter.com/xDFY6LTfhu
- Hashtag Reads (@hashtagreads) October 2, 2019
Even though this is Bates’ first work of fiction, you might have heard of her already-she set the UK feminist movement on fire (in a good way!) when she started the viral Everyday Sexism Project to raise awareness of sexual harassment and all the other crap that women have to deal with on a daily basis. Drawing attention to the toxic world of revenge porn and slut-shaming, and interweaving the story of a teenager who subjected to both with that of an ill-fated 17th-century rape victim, The Burning is definitely a story for our times-at least if the sickening experiences of former Congresswoman Katie Hill are anything to go by.
Sara Collins
Published this year: The Confessions of Frannie Langton
A former lawyer who then spent nearly a decade as a stay-at-home mum (to five kids!), Collins started her debut novel in 2016 while studying for a creative writing MA. Fast-forward to this year, and her story of Frannie, a Jamaican former slave accused of murdering her employer, is a bestseller with rave reviews-and Collins is already hard at work on a script for the TV adaptation. Perfect for fans of Jean Rhys’ Wide Sargasso Sea, The Confessions of Frannie Langton explores the lives of West Indians who were in England long before the Windrush generation and gives a much-needed voice to marginalised figures who are too often silenced throughout history.
Don’t forget to put these writers on your 2020 reading list! Let us know of any other novelists that we’ve missed out in the comments section down below.
Originally published at https://uni.news on October 31, 2019.
