Navdeep Singh Dhillon

  • Home
  • About
  • Portfolio
  • Adventures in Papa Land
  • Lit Life
  • Contact

First Lines From 54 Novels by People of Color in 2015

December 24, 2015 by Navdeep

Kickass Diverse Novels of 2015

Kickass Diverse Novels of 2015

Short sentences, long sentences, suspenseful sentences, funny sentences, profound sentences, to-the-point sentences, meandering flowery sentences; young adult, middle grade, romance, literary, women’s fiction, science fiction, fantasy, I love them all. Nothing gives me more joy than than an electric first line of a novel or a short story collection – what Sona refers to as pure agony.

Last year I wrote two book lists over Christmas and New Year on my site: 8 Short Story Writers of Color and First Lines From 36 Novelists of Color, as well as one on travel memoirs that don’t involve middle-class white women or white boys leaving their corporate jobs and going to brown and black countries to discover themselves (and so can you!). I originally wrote the lists because it was perplexing to hear people, including my incredibly diverse and smart creative writing students, drinking the Koolaid and parroting the lie that people of color either aren’t writing novels, or the novels aren’t that “great” (because there aren’t any mediocre novels by white men populating the book lists).

This year my list includes 54 novels and these are just the books I liked. My criteria is not particularly complex and is pretty much the exact same criteria I use in deciding to spend cash money to buy all of these books in the first place (except for Tiny Pretty Things, which I got for free due to my intimate relationship with one of the writers: my wife, Sona Charaipotra).

My criteria:

  1. A gorgeous first sentence that invites you to sink into a large, fluffy chair, with a warm cup of cha, and an aromatic novel.
  2. The authors and the content of their stories have some level of diversity. People of color writing novels filled with white people is just not my thing. I’d rather read white people writing about white people.
  3. Everything was published in 2015. In rare cases where a novel was published in England or South Africa in 2015, but doesn’t come out in the U.S. until 2016 I’ve put a link to the available e-book. Aside from Toni Morrison being on the top of the list, this list is not in any particular order. They all have gorgeous first lines that drew me in.

Let 2016 be the year of more mirrors and windows. And to diverse vampires . .  .   As usual, Junot Diaz perfectly sums it all up:

“You guys know about vampires? You know, vampires have no reflections in a mirror? There’s this idea that monsters don’t have reflections in a mirror. And what I’ve always thought isn’t that monsters don’t have reflections in a mirror. It’s that if you want to make a human being into a monster, deny them, at the cultural level, any reflection of themselves. And growing up, I felt like a monster in some ways. I didn’t see myself reflected at all. I was like, “Yo, is something wrong with me? That the whole society seems to think that people like me don’t exist?” And part of what inspired me, was this deep desire that before I died, I would make a couple of mirrors. That I would make some mirrors so that kids like me might see themselves reflected back and might not feel so monstrous for it.” ~ Junot Díaz

God Help the Child by Toni Morrison

God Help the Child by Toni Morrison

1. “It’s not my fault.”

Buy It

Add to GoodReads

Re Jane by Patricia Park

Re Jane by Patricia Park

2. “Home was this northeastern knot of Queens, in the town (if you could call it a town) of Flushing.”

Buy It
Add to GoodReads

Tiny Pretty Things by Sona Charaipotra and Dhonielle Clayton

Tiny Pretty Things by Sona Charaipotra and Dhonielle Clayton

3. “It always feels like death.”

Buy it
Add to GoodReads

Mr. and Mrs. Doctor by Julie Iromuanya

Mr. and Mrs. Doctor by Julie Iromuanya

4. “Everything Job Ogbonnaya knew about sex he learned from American pornography.”

Buy it
Add to GoodReads

The Tusk That Did The Damage by Tania James

The Tusk That Did The Damage by Tania James

5. “He would come to be called the Gravedigger.”

Buy it
Add to GoodReads

Delicious Foods by James Hannaham

Delicious Foods by James Hannaham

6. “After escaping the farm, Eddie drove through the night.”

Buy it
Add to GoodReads

Blackass by A. Igoni Barrett

Blackass by A. Igoni Barrett

7. “Furo Wariboko awoke this morning to find that dreams can lose their way and turn up on the wrong side of sleep.”

Buy it
Add to GoodReads

Shadowshaper by Daniel José Older

Shadowshaper by Daniel José Older

8. “Sierra? What are you staring at?”

Buy it
Add to GoodReads

The Bollywood Bride by Sonali Dev

The Bollywood Bride by Sonali Dev

9. “How do you explain losing your words to someone?”

Buy itBuy The Bollywood Bride by Sonali Dev on Amazon
Add to GoodReads

Ruby by Cynthia Bend

Ruby by Cynthia Bend

10. “Ruby Bell was a constant reminder of what could befall a woman whose shoe heels were too high.”

Buy it
Add to GoodReads

The Wrath and the Dawn by Renée Ahdieh

The Wrath and the Dawn by Renée Ahdieh

11. “It would not be a welcome dawn.”

Buy it
Add to GoodReads

An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir

An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir

12. “My big brother reaches home in the dark hours before dawn, when even ghosts take their rest.”

Buy itAn Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir
Add to GoodReads

Loving Day by Mat Johnson

Loving Day by Mat Johnson

13. “In the ghetto there is a mansion, and it is my father’s house.”

Buy itLoving Day by Mat Johnson
Add to GoodReads

Only The Strong by Jabari Asim

Only The Strong by Jabari Asim

14. “Guts Tolliver hadn’t killed a man in two years.”

Buy it
Add to GoodReads

Dragonfish by Vu Tran

Dragonfish by Vu Tran

15. “Our first night at sea, you cried for your father.”

Buy itDragonfish by Vu Tran
Add to GoodReads

The Girl Who Wrote Loneliness by Kyung-Sook Shin

The Girl Who Wrote Loneliness by Kyung-Sook Shin

16. “I find myself here, in this place where I have never been before, contemplating myself at sixteen.”

Buy itThe Girl Who Wrote Loneliness
Add to GoodReads

The Star Side of Bird Hill by Naomi Jackson

The Star Side of Bird Hill by Naomi Jackson

17. “The people on the hill liked to say that God’s smile was the sun shining down on them.”


Buy itThe Star Side of Bird Hill by Naomi Jackson
Add to GoodReads

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

18. “The eleventh apartment had only one closet, but it did have a sliding glass door that opened onto a small balcony, from which he could see a man sitting across the way, outdoors in only a T-shirt and shorts even though it was October, smoking.”

Buy itA Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
Add to GoodReads

Frog by Mo Yan

Frog by Mo Yan

19. “Dear Sugitani Akhito Sensei, it has been nearly a month since we said goodbye, but I can relive virtually every moment of our time together in my hometown as if it were yesterday.”

Buy itFrog by Mo Yan
Add to GoodReads

The Way Things Were by Aatish Taseer

The Way Things Were by Aatish Taseer

20. “Skanda is deep into his translation of The Birth of Kumara when his mother calls to say his father is on his deathbed”

Buy itThe Way Things Were by Aatish Taseer
Add to GoodReads

The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen

The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen

21. “I am a spy, a sleeper, a spook, a man of two faces.”

Buy itThe Sympathizer
Add to GoodReads

Make Your Home Among Strangers by Jennine Capó Crucet

Make Your Home Among Strangers by Jennine Capó Crucet

22. “Canals zigzag across the city I used to call home.”

Buy it
Add to GoodReads

In The Language of Miracles by Rajia Hassib

In The Language of Miracles by Rajia Hassib

23. “When Khaled fell sick at age nine, his grandmother descended on his parents’ house and promised him healing.”

Buy it
Add to GoodReads

Mayumi and the sea of happiness by Jennifer Tseng

Mayumi and the sea of happiness by Jennifer Tseng

24. “It began at the library.”

Buy it
Add to GoodReads

Blue Sun, Yellow Sky by Jaime Jo Hoang

Blue Sun, Yellow Sky by Jaime Jo Hoang

25. “Have you ever noticed that fire hydrants are rarely alike in shape or color?”

Buy it
Add to GoodReads

White Light by Vanessa Garcia

White Light by Vanessa Garcia

26. “Sometimes you wake up with a hole in your heart and you’re not sure why.”

Buy it
Add to GoodReads

The Story of My Teeth by Valeria Luiselli

The Story of My Teeth by Valeria Luiselli

27. “I’m the best auctioneer in the world, but no one knows it because I’m a discreet sort of man.”

Buy it
Add to GoodReads

More Happy Than Not by Adam Silvera

More Happy Than Not by Adam Silvera

28. “It turns out the Leteo procedure isn’t bullshit.”

Buy it
Add to GoodReads

The Dark Forest by Cixin Liu

The Dark Forest by Cixin Liu

29. “The brown ant had already forgotten its home.”

Buy it
Add to GoodReads

The Discreet Hero by Mario Vargas Llosa

The Discreet Hero by Mario Vargas Llosa

30. “Felícito Yanaqué, the owner of the Narihualá Transport Company, left his house that morning, as he did every morning Monday to Saturday, at exactly seven thirty, after doing half an hour of qigong, taking a cold shower, and preparing his usual breakfast: coffee with goat’s milk and toast with butter and a few drops of raw chancaca honey.”

Buy it
Add to GoodReads

Orhan's Inheritance by Aline Ohanesian

Orhan’s Inheritance by Aline Ohanesian

31. “They found him inside one of seventeen cauldrons in the courtyard, steeping in an indigo dye two shades darker than the summer sky.”

Buy it
Add to GoodReads

Bright Lines by Tanwi Nandini Islam

Bright Lines by Tanwi Nandini Islam

32. “Girls, everywhere.”

Buy it
Add to GoodReads

The Distant Marvels by Chantel Acevedo

The Distant Marvels by Chantel Acevedo


33. “An unexpected envelope was delivered to me two months ago, on the first day of August.”

Buy it

Add to GoodReads

The Woman Who Read Too Much by Bahiyyih Nakhjavani

The Woman Who Read Too Much by Bahiyyih Nakhjavani

34. “When the Shah was shot, he staggered several places in the shrine and fell stone dead in the lap of an old beggar woman.”

Buy it
Add to GoodReads

Under the Udala Trees by Chinelo Okparanta

Under the Udala Trees by Chinelo Okparanta

35. “Midway between Old Oba-Nnewi Road and New Oba-Nnewi Road, in that general area bound by the village church and the primary school, and where Mmiri John Road drops off only to begin again, stood our house in Ojoto.”

Buy it
Add to GoodReads

All American Boys by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely

All American Boys by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely

36. “Your left! Your left! Your left-right-left! Your left! Your left! Your left-right-left!”

Buy it
Add to GoodReads

Odysseus Abroad by Amit Chaudhuri

Odysseus Abroad by Amit Chaudhuri

37. “He got up at around nine o’clock with the usual feeling of dread.”

Buy it
Add to GoodReads

Arrows of Rain by Okey Ndibe

Arrows of Rain by Okey Ndibe

38. “The young woman lay on the sands, her mouth frozen in a smile, as if nothing in the whole world surpassed the sweetness death.”

Buy it
Add to GoodReads

The Given World by Marian Palaia

The Given World by Marian Palaia

39. “Jasper says this is the kind of heat that makes people in Australia shoot each other.”

Buy it
Add to GoodReads

A Bad Character by Deepti Kapoor

A Bad Character by Deepti Kapoor

40. “My boyfriend died when I was twenty-one.”

Buy it
Add to GoodReads

Balm by Dolen Perkins-Valdez

Balm by Dolen Perkins-Valdez

41. “When Madge arrived in Chicago, it was an unusually windless summer day, and she could not take her eyes off the bluest water she had ever seen.”

Buy it
Add to GoodReads

Beauty is a Wound by Eka Kurniawan

Beauty is a Wound by Eka Kurniawan

42. “One afternoon on a weekend in March, Dewi Ayu rose from her grave after being dead for twenty-one years.”

Buy it
Add to GoodReads

The Automobile Club of Egypt by Alaa Al Aswany

The Automobile Club of Egypt by Alaa Al Aswany

43. “My wife finally understood that I needed some time on my own.”

Buy it
Add to GoodReads

Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh

Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh

44. “I looked like a girl you’d expect to see on a city bus, reading some clothbound book from the library about plants or geography, perhaps wearing a net over my light brown hair.”

Buy it
Add to GoodReads

Jam on The Vine by LaShonda Katrice Barnett

Jam on The Vine by LaShonda Katrice Barnett

45. “Ivoe liked to carry on about all she could do.”

Buy it
Add to GoodReads

Butterfly Fish by Irenosen Okojie

Butterfly Fish by Irenosen Okojie

46. “A green palm wine bottle rolled on the wet London Street.”

Buy it
Add to GoodReads

A Map of Betrayal by Ha Jin

A Map of Betrayal by Ha Jin

47. “My mother used to say, ‘Lillian, as long as I’m alive, you must have nothing to do with that woman.”

Buy it
Add to GoodReads

Mirages of the Mind by Mushtaq Ahmed Yousufi

Mirages of the Mind by Mushtaq Ahmed Yousufi

48. “He’s human, but don’t look into his eyes.”

Buy it
Add to GoodReads

Diamond Head by Cecily Wong

Diamond Head by Cecily Wong


49. “Inside the car, it smells like hibiscus.”

Buy it
Add to GoodReads

Sweet Medicine by Panashe Chigumadzi

Sweet Medicine by Panashe Chigumadzi

50.  “‘You cannot fight an evil disease with sweet medicine,’ says the n’anga.”

Buy it
Add to GoodReads

Serpentine by Cindy Pon

Serpentine by Cindy Pon

51. “The mountain was still shrouded in mist.”

Buy it
Add to GoodReads

What Will People Say by Rehana Rousouw

What Will People Say by Rehana Rousouw

52. “The South-Easter lifted the smell of pig manure spread across farms in Phiippi, crossed Lansdowne Road and dumped it like a wet poep over Hanover Park.”

Buy it
Add to GoodReads

The Offering by Salah el Moncef

The Offering by Salah el Moncef

53. “There is something oddly stark and unqualified about the memory of pain visited upon others: a feelings of guilt and unworthiness that is so pervasive it becomes an integral part of everything you are; so total that it strips you of every sense of nuance and proportion, every shade of self-justification that might alleviate your feeling of culpability.”

Buy it
Add to GoodReads

Don't Let Him Know by Sandip Roy

Don’t Let Him Know by Sandip Roy

54. “‘Ma,’ said Amit, ‘I have to talk to you about something.'”

Buy it
Add to GoodReads

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...
Email, RSS Follow

Share and Enjoy

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Delicious
  • LinkedIn
  • StumbleUpon
  • Add to favorites
  • Email
  • RSS

Filed Under: Book Lists Tagged With: diverse novels, diversity in YA, Navdeep Singh Dhillon, We Need Diverse Books

About Navdeep

I was born in England and raised all over the world, but I'm a Punjabi boy at heart. Give me a bread pakora and a mango lassi and we'll be friends for life. I teach creative writing in New York City and blog about diversity, lit life, and being a Papa here. I also write about travel, food, and race at IshqInABackpack.com. I write for Mom.me. In my spare time, I Papa and I husband. Follow my tweets @navdeep_dhillon and @ishqinabackpack.

SEARCH

I Got This

about I write fiction. I am a Papa. That pretty much sums up what I blog about here. I am a contributing writer for Mom.me and was featured on The Stir's 2013 list of 10 Best Dad Bloggers. I have an MFA in creative writing and teach fiction and literature in NYC. I read. You should too. Read more about me.

Connect With Me

  • FaceBook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • GoodReads
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • RSS
  • YouTube

Want To Be My Phrand?

Please don't steal my stuff. All content © 2014 by Navdeep Singh Dhillon exclusively for NavdeepSinghDhillon.com. All Rights Reserved. Republication or redistribution of content in part or whole is strictly prohibited without consent.