When you’re in the business of reviewing books, as we are here at Kirkus Reviews, there are a couple of thrills unique to the job. One is getting your hands on an early copy of a book by a writer you love. Who can resist what used to be called, on BookTwitter, a galleybrag? I’ll make one now by telling you I received—and am currently devouring—an advanced reading copy of Dream Count (Knopf, March 4), the first novel by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie since the acclaimed Americanah back in 2013. The illustration of a flame on the cover is no mere metaphor: The book is fire, as the kids say. 

The other professional thrill is even rarer: Stumbling upon a book by a complete unknown and experiencing the elation of discovery: Wow, this is really good. That’s how I felt just pages into Great Black Hope (Summit, June 10), the first novel by 31-year-old Brooklyn writer Rob Franklin, who appears on the cover of our first-ever Debuts Issue, out Feb. 15.

Great Black Hope opens at a Hamptons nightspot at the end of summer, as the young, Black, queer protagonist pockets a small amount of cocaine—“flown in from Medellín, cut with amphetamine in Miami, and offered to him in Southampton by a boy he knew from nights out in the city”—and is arrested moments later and charged with possession. The narrative follows his trajectory towards trial and self-reckoning in what our starred review calls a “captivating novel of dissolution and redemption.” Read my recent interview with Franklin and add this sensational novel to your reading list for Summer 2025.

Elsewhere in the issue, we speak with another debut author—one with a very different background and a very different book. Chloe Dalton was a seasoned speechwriter and political adviser in the United Kingdom, where she worked in the Foreign Office, frequently traveling to global hotspots such as Kabul and Ulaanbataar. But the advent of the Covid-19 pandemic grounded her, and while locked down at her home in the English countryside, she came upon an undefended baby hare—a leveret—while out on a walk. When the vulnerable creature hadn’t moved from the spot hours later, Dalton reluctantly decided to bring it home.

The outcome of this decision is chronicled in her debut memoir, Raising Hare (Pantheon, March 4). Though Dalton never names the hare and gives it free run of her garden and, eventually, beyond, it always returns to the sanctuary she has provided. I’ve just finished this book and wholeheartedly agree with our starred review, which calls it a “soulful and gracefully written book about an animal’s power to rekindle curiosity.” It’s hard to believe that this subtle and profound memoir is a debut; it belongs on the shelf alongside such treasured animal portraits as Helen Macdonald’s H Is for Hawk and Catherine Raven’s Fox & I. Our conversation with Dalton is online today.

This pair of knockout debuts is just the beginning of the riches you’ll find in the Debuts Issue. Our editors have covered the waterfront to assemble it, and we’re confident that the talented writers we’ve featured are just warming up.

Tom Beer is the editor-in-chief.