Loading
2019 PEN/Hemingway Award Shortlist
Choose your favorite debut novel from these exceptional finalists.
Published on January 25, 2019
Severance: A Novel
Ling MaImagine a crossover episode between “The Office” and “The Walking Dead,” and you’ve got Ling Ma’s terrific first novel. It somehow manages to satirize everything from careerism to apocalyptic thrillers without sacrificing empathy or believability. A super smart page-turner.
Freshwater
Akwaeke EmeziSurreal and enthralling, Akwaeke Emezi’s fictionalized autobiography immerses readers in the mind of Ada, a young Nigerian woman, as her sense of self splinters into multiple, conflicting spirits. As Ada grows up and moves to America to attend college, the spirits grow more controlling with devastating consequences for Ada’s relationships. Emezi’s debut is a powerful and poetic portrait of mental illness rooted in the Igbo cosmology of Nigeria.