21.   An impressive first novel escapes the cliches and stereotypes of modern Irish fiction to tell the story of an abused wife and her gay son.

22.   An impressive first novel whose heroine, a European come to Kenya for salvation, encounters instead a poisonous love affair and an incestuous community of competitive expatriates.

23.   An ingenious, original first novel that pits empiricism against intuition in elevator inspection by way of approaching racial struggle and social progress.

24.   And brother George Minot is working on his first novel for Knopf, also about family.

25.   And Lanchester is a commanding writer, this accomplished first novel promising great things in the future.

26.   And Goodman is finishing work on her first novel.

27.   And this was not the first novel that Beattie had scrapped.

28.   And, I own an autographed, first edition of his first novel.

29.   And then they make mega-best-sellers out of obscure first novels and two-decade-old books.

30.   Anne Michaels had given little thought to how many readers her first novel might have.