Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Five best debut novels of the decade

Brian DeLeeuw named a "five best debut novels of the decade" list for the Tin House Blog.

One title to make the grade:
The Horned Man — James Lasdun (W.W. Norton, 2002)

Does it count as a “debut” if you’ve already published three collections of poetry and three more collections of short stories? “First” novel might be more accurate, but in any case, this is a coolly brilliant work of paranoia and psychological shell-games, which also manages to deftly satirize the sexual politics of academia.
Learn about the book that changed James Lasdun's life.

Read about the other books on DeLeeuw's list.

Brian DeLeeuw is an editor at Tin House magazine and a contributor to the website ThisRecording.com. He received his BA from Princeton University and his MFA from The New School. He now lives in New York City, where he was born and raised. In This Way I Was Saved, his debut novel, was published in 2009.

Read an excerpt from In This Way I Was Saved, and learn more about the book and author at Brian DeLeeuw's website.

The Page 69 Test: In This Way I Was Saved.

--Marshal Zeringue