Debut Spotlight with Rachel Barenbaum

A coming-of-middle-age novel full of humor and grief. When Abe Jacobs is faced with an unthinkable diagnosis, he follows his fragile hope for a cure to the Mohawk Rez where he grew up. In his family's hands, Abe just might find hope.

A young Stanford graduate caught between worlds of race and class, glamour and tragedy, a friend's mysterious death and his own arrest. Pulled into the court system and mandated treatment, he finds himself in an absurd but dangerous situation: his class protects him, but his race does not.

Annie is nine months pregnant and shopping for a crib when a massive earthquake hits Portland, Oregon. All she can do is try to walk home. We follow her journey across a transformed city as she reflects on her life and re-considers hope for the future.

In this debut novel, two sisters are betrayed and violently estranged. They must weigh the value of ambition versus familial love and home versus the outside world. An exploration of family bonds in a story of sisterhood in turn-of-the-millennium Singapore.

A coming of age novel about working-class female friendship, set in the schoolyards, nightclubs, and alleyways of a gritty, post-industrial town in Yorkshire, England. Three girls are inseparable, their friendship as indestructible as they are, but as they grow up and away from one another, a long-festering secret threatens to rip the trio apart.

Three star players on a high school football team are accused of violence by another student. Their secrets, and the secrets of their parents, threaten to shatter their entire community in a novel of race, class, and privilege.

Inspired by a true story, “We Would Never” is a gripping murder mystery and an intimate family drama. It explores the issues of loyalty, betrayal, and the blurred line between protecting and forsaking the ones we love most.

When 276 schoolgirls are abducted from their school in Nigeria, a Florida-based lawyer and former POW of the Nigerian Civil War is consumed by memories of his younger sister who went missing during that conflict. “A Season of Light” explores the shaky promise of the immigrant American dream and a family struggling with intergenerational trauma.

Two brothers are living off the grid on the edge of Yellowstone. In dire straits and desperate for money, they accept a dangerous proposition that permanently alters their lives and their relationship to each other. 

A novel about marriage and ambition, sexuality and secrecy, and the true costs of building an empire. “Mutual Interest” explores the lives of “three queer misfits turned business titans” during the Gilded Age with immersive period detail and compelling emotional stakes.

“Homeseeking” follows Haiwen and Suchi, two separated lovers through six decades of Chinese history. War, famine, and opportunity take them from Hong Kong, to Taiwan, New York, and LA. This debut novel is a story of family, sacrifice, and loyalty, and of the power of love to endure beyond distance and time.

It's a beautiful day in Newport, Rhode Island, when Phoebe Stone arrives at the grand Cornwall Inn, the only guest who isn't there for the big event. A novel about depression, love, the ways women make themselves small, and the chance encounters it sometimes takes to reroute us.

Shortlisted for the Booker Prize, this is a story of desire, suspicion, and obsession between two women staying in the same house in the Dutch countryside during the summer of 1961. An exploration of the legacy of WWII and the darker parts of our collective past.

A special Check This Out episode featuring three librarians from around the state chatting about their favorite books of the year and offering suggestions for this holiday reading season. We also discuss how librarians feel about audiobooks — does it count as reading? Plus, the explosion of "Young Adult" titles and whether the name should be changed, how libraries decide which books to put on their shelves, and the pros and cons of self-publishing.

A beautiful, tender, yet searing debut novel about intergenerational fractures and coming of age, following a young woman who immigrates to the United States from the Philippines and finds herself adrift between familial expectations and her own desires.

An unlikely production of Euripides in a prison quarry, set in ancient Greece with a contemporary Irish accent. As funny as it is moving, the novel is an ode to the power of art in a time of war and brotherhood in a time of enmity.

Based on (mostly) true events, "The Bullet Swallower" is a magical realism western about violence and revenge, a story that asks who pays for the sins of our ancestors, and whether it is possible to be better than our forebears.

In this historical fantasy novel, a group of passengers set out on the Trans-Siberian Express train, in a journey across a magical landscape known as “the Wastelands.” Can they trust each other even as the rules seem to be changing?

The third season of in-depth author interviews continues with Essie Chambers, author of "Swift River." Longlisted for The Center for Fiction 2024 First Novel Prize, there's a lot to unpack in this novel. Sixteen year old Diamond is the only Black person in the town of Swift River, stuck in a town she hates it as much as it hates her. Her mother is a drug addict who can't pay the bills, and making things even worse, Diamond is buried in an obese body she can't escape, a symbol of the generational trauma that weighs on her every single day. "Swift River" focuses on three generations of women in one family, the trauma they endure and pass on. It also shows us the hope Diamond holds for her future, and a historic setting in a northern ‘sundown town,' a town where Black people are only allowed to pass through during the day.

Set around Maine's Penobscot Reservation, a novel about one man's family, divided, like the river that separates him from his childhood home. The novel is about belonging, the shifting nature of memory - and bloodlines. Shortlisted for The Center for Fiction 2024 First Novel Prize.

A heartfelt epic about friendship, betrayal, and redemption during three transformative decades in Iran.

Kaliane Bradley's debut is a time travel romance, a spy thriller, a workplace comedy and a testament to what we owe each other in a changing world.

In Andrew Boryga's debut "Victim," the protagonist is a hustler from a family of hustlers. He learns to talk about his background in just the right way to open doors to an elite college and writing gigs. The novel asks: What does real diversity look like?

“Blank” by Zibby Owens follows the story of Pippa Jones, a fortyish former literary sensation who fears she will be a one-hit wonder. Her solution to writer's block is an idea her 12-year old son came up with as a joke.

"The Extinction of Irena Rey" is the new novel by famed translator Jennifer Croft. Eight translators arrive at a house in a primeval Polish forest on the border of Belarus. It belongs to the world-renowned author Irena Rey, and they are there to translate her magnum opus, Gray Eminence. But within days of their arrival, Irena disappears without a trace.

Inci Atrek brings readers a seductive and lyrical debut novel. “Holiday Country" follows a young woman's dangerous summer romance during an idyllic vacation on the Aegean coast.

Set against the backdrop of developing modern China, Aube Rey Lescure's “River East, River West” is part coming-of-age tale and part family and social drama. It follows two generations searching for belonging and opportunity in a rapidly changing world.

Rachel Barenbaum interviews author Leo Vardiashvili's about his debut novel“Hard By a Great Forest” – a story about a man who fled the Republic of Georgia in the midst of war. It's a unique tale about the traumas of war and the lasting effects of those families driven not just to survive, but to remember, love and live.

Rachel Barenbaum interviews author Maura Cheeks who talks about her new novel Acts of Forgiveness. Set in a speculative America, readers navigate a world where the government has approved reparation payments for black Americans – but only if they can prove they are descended from slaves.

Vauhini Vara's story collection, THIS IS SALVAGED, has been named by The New Yorker, Publisher's Weekly, Vox, and the New York Public Library as one of the best books of the year.

Host Rachel Barenbaum sits down with her colleagues from the Howe Library in Hanover, New Hampshire to discuss their favorite reads from 2023.

This week on Check This Out, host Rachel Barenbaum sits down with Emma Törzs, author of "Ink Blood Sister Scribe." Törzs' debut novel will soon be available in 13 languages. It's a fast paced, magical book about two estranged half-sisters tasked with guarding their family's library of magical books. They work together along with a stranger, a magical scribe, to unravel a deadly secret at the heart of their collection. It's a tale of familial loyalty and betrayal and the pursuit of magic and power. Törzs says swaths of the story were inspired by her family's Hungarian roots, and by what it took for them to survive the Holocaust.

Episode 109. You may know Ayana Mathis from her debut novel, The Twelve Tribes of Hattie. Published 11 years ago, the excitement and noise around that debut took up all the space and energy Mathis had to write fiction. Her new second novel is called The Unsettled. It's a mother-daughter-son story that braids two narratives - one from the south and one from the north.

John Manuel Arias is a queer Costa Rican-American poet and writer who has lived in the U.S. and in Costa Rica where, as he reports, he shared a house with his grandmother and four ghosts. His debut novel, Where There Was Fire, burst onto the scene in August 2023. Set in Costa Rica, this story follows several generations of women in one family — mothers and daughters — alternating between their lives in the 1960s and the 1990s. The novel focuses on one major event that reverberates and haunts each generation: a fire that burnt down a banana plantation and in which a father goes missing. This single event tears the family apart and gives rise to ghosts that keep the characters pushing for answers. Who started the fire? What happened to a missing husband? To a dead mother? Where There Was Fire is about love and secrets, reconciliation and redemption, all focused around the biggest question of all: What is the price of a banana?

This week, host Rachel Barenbaum sits down with Angie Kim, author of the novel "Miracle Creek." Kim was named a finalist for the New American Voices Award. Her latest work, "Happiness Falls" follows the story of family in crisis, after a father goes missing — and the only person who knows what happened to him is the family's non-verbal 14 year old son, Eugene. In this conversation, Angie Kim shares her inspiration for "Happiness Falls," which tackles fascinating questions of love, language, and human connection.

This week, host Rachel Barenbaum sits down with Tania James, author of the novels "The Tusk That Did the Damage" and "Atlas of Unknowns." Her latest work, "Loot," has been named to the longlist of the 2023 National Book Award in fiction. In this conversation, Tania James shares her inspiration for "Loot," which gives readers a front-row seat to 18th and 19th century imperialism as seen through the eyes of an artisan toy maker who begins his journey in 1794 in Mysore, India. Check this Out features lively conversations with up and coming authors, and serves as a platform for diverse voices and stories to be heard. NHPR and The Howe Library are proud to be able to bring these conversations into your homes and headphones.

Episode 105. Rachel Barenbaum interviews Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah on the launch of his phenomenal debut CHAIN-GANG ALL-STARS. Do not miss this book of this author!

Episode 104. Rachel Barenbaum interviews Claire Jimenez on the launch of her debut, WHAT HAPPENED TO RUTHIE RAMIREZ?

Rachel Barenbaum interviews Priya Guns on the launch of her debut novel, YOUR DRIVER IS WAITING. 

Rachel Barenbaum interviews debut author Jenny Jackson on the launch of her Instant New York Times Best Seller PINEAPPLE STREET. 

Rachel Barenbaum interviews Patricia Park on the launch of her debut YA novel IMPOSTER SYNDROME. 

Episode 100. Rachel Barenbaum interviews Ruben Degollado on the launch of his debut novel, THE FAMILY IZQUIERDO. Don't miss this interview of this amazing book!!

Episode 99. Rachel Barenbaum interviews Elena Armas on the launch of her new novel THE AMERICAN ROOMMATE EXPERIMENT. Elena is a brilliant writer who started by self publishing - and grew into a TikTok sensation. After exploding sales, she was picked up by a big publisher and both of her books have been NYTimes instant bestsellers. Don't miss this book or this author!!

Episode 98. Rachel Barenbaum interviews debut author Belinda Huijuan Tang about her novel A MAP FOR THE MISSING. Don't miss this amazing book!!

Episode 97. Rachel Barenbaum interviews Kelly J. Ford on the release of her new novel REAL BAD THINGS. This interview is a part of the new literary series CHECK THIS OUT at the Howe Library. 

Episode 96. Rachel Barenbaum interviews Jonathan Escoffery on the launch of his debut IF I SURVIVE YOU. This book is already nominated for the National Book Award. Do not miss the book or this interview!

Episode 95 Rachel Barenbaum interviews E.B. Bartels on the launch of her debut GOOD GRIEF. Don't miss this amazing author or interview!! 

Episode 94. Rachel Barenbaum interviews Felicia Berliner on the launch of her debut, SHMUTZ. Don't miss it!!

Episode 93. Rachel Barenbaum interviews Zibby Owens on the launch of her debut memoir, BOOKENDS. Do not miss this amazing author or her memoir!!

Episode 92. Rachel Barenbaum interviews Katie Gutierrez on the launch of her debut MORE THAN YOU'LL EVER KNOW. This book is fantastic. Don't miss it or this amazing author. 

Episode 91. Rachel Barenbaum interviews John Vercher on the launch of his second novel, AFTER THE LIGHTS GO OUT. Don't miss this amazing book or interview.