Staff picks: five debut novels we love right now

We asked every bookseller for the one debut they'd press on a friend this autumn. Five titles, five impassioned pitches, zero consensus — which is exactly how you know they're all good.

There's a coastal family saga, a locked-room mystery with a wicked sense of humour, a slim novel-in-verse you'll finish in one sitting, a fantasy about maps that redraw themselves, and a story collection about small, survivable fires.

All five are on the shelf now, most under twenty-five dollars. Start anywhere; you can't go wrong.