| Relative Danger Charles Benoit (Poisoned Pen) | This smashingly good mystery sends its hapless hero on a hilarious and often murderous chase through much of the Third World. |  |
| Natasha and Other Stories David Bezmozgis (Farrar, Straus & Giroux) | A collection of seven linked stories that lives up to the hype, rendering the Russian-Jewish immigrant experience with powerful specificity. |  |
| Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell Susanna Clarke (Bloomsbury) | The most anticipated debut novel of the year, about a pair of dueling magicians in early 19th-century England, masterfully blends history and fantasy. A massive push by Bloomsbury propelled this old-fashioned narrative, complete with deft footnotes, onto bestseller lists. |  |
| The Big Love Sarah Dunn (Little, Brown) | An ex-evangelical Christian protagonist gives this quality chick-lit novel a twist; Dunn's marvelously dry humor and velvety prose do the rest. |  |
| A Woman of the World Genie Chipps Henderson (Berkley) | Loosely modeled on photojournalist Margaret Bourke-White, Henderson's irrepressible heroine struggles with her career and her love life in this lively romance set in the 1930s and '40s. |  |
| Fitzpatrick's War Theodore Judson (DAW) | Like Heinlein, Asimov and other SF greats, Judson doesn't let his message get in the way of his story, about a puritanical 26th-century agrarian empire. |  |
| The Preservationist David Maine (St. Martin's) | Maine's spirited, imaginative debut puts a Life of Pi—ish spin on the adventures of biblical patriarch Noah and his clan as they labor, suffer and goof off in the service of the Lord. |  |
Hot Fiction Debuts
Among the many first works of fiction published in 2004, here are seven, ranging from mainstream to genre, that stood out.
Dec 06, 2004
A version of this article appeared in the 12/06/2004 issue of Publishers Weekly under the headline:
