Debut London Literature

All of their debuts are set, at least in part, in London, taking in disparate experiences of this sprawling city, from the Caribbean immigrant communities of 1960s Britain to an eerie, unstable depiction of city life rendered through the eyes of a compulsive liar.

Set between London and Barbados, and spanning a period from the 1960s to the present day, Eden McKenzie-Goddard’s Smallie is an exhilarating and expansive tale of a family thrown into collision with the Windrush scandal, showing just how easily the past can spill into our lives, even when – especially when – we think we’ve closed the door on it.

Funny, excruciating, and true, Jem Calder’s I Want You to Be Happy is a sharp-eyed tale of copywriter Chuck, and barista and aspiring poet Joey – two people searching for romance, meaning and connection in modern times, missing the mark maybe, but trying.

Translated from the Italian by Lucy Rand, Emanuela Anechoum’s Tangerinn is set between London, Italy and Morocco, exploring experiences of displacement, memory, grief and migration. Following a young woman who relocates from London to her childhood home after the death of her father, it asks how we might find a common history that allows us to forget, at least at times, the ferocity of the world.

Funny, sexy, and politically astute, Aea Varfis-van Warmelo’s Attention-Seeking Behaviour is at once a personal confessional and a critical history of lie detection set in contemporary London. Blending fiction and non-fiction, it follows a narrator who is forced to reckon with her long history of deception, and the terrible cost it has exacted on her relationships.