It’s been a good summer for debuts, as we’ve noted before, and it continues with the final Indie Hardcover Fiction Best Seller list of the season.

Making a leap from #11 to #2 is Maria Semple’s Where’d You Go, Bernadette, (Hachette/Little, Brown; Hachette Audio; Thorndike Large Type in Dec.). Janet Maslin’s early plug in the NYT, was followed by several others, including NPR’s review, which calls it a “screwball satire,” and USA Today‘s,  praising the portrayal of the main character for being “complex and hilarious.” Author Semple was profiled in the NYT. Most libraries are showing heavy holds.

At #16 and marked as “on the rise” is The Orchardist by Amanda Coplin (Harper; Thorndike Large Print), a debut about a lonely widowed orchard owner, whose life is transformed when two pregnant escapees from the local brothel appear on his farm. NPR reviewed it last week, calling it “a stunning accomplishment, hypnotic in its storytelling power, by turns lyrical and gritty, and filled with marvels. Coplin displays a dazzling sense of craftsmanship, and a talent for creating characters vivid and true.” Holds are heavy in several parts of the country, with the heaviest in the NorthWest, where the author grew up and the book is set.

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 30th, 2012 at 12:17 pm and is filed under 2012 -- Summer, Bestsellers, Fiction. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.