It’s always a good time to discover a new writer. This season has already seen a number of excellent debuts; here are some that may intrigue you.

33 Place Brugmann by Alice Austen (Grove, March 11): I’m a fan of books set among neighbors, a tie that can take so many forms. Playwright and filmmaker Austen’s first novel takes place in Brussels in a Beaux Arts apartment building during the years 1939-43, and it opens with a list of the residents attesting that they’re all Belgian citizens “unless otherwise noted and duly registered.” Among others, there are an architect and an art dealer, a refugee seamstress, various housewives and students. “In an impressive display of Austen’s storytelling skill, about a dozen of these individuals become point-of-view characters, unfurling an unusually colorful and intelligent, poignant and rich World War II novel,” according to our starred review.

Deep Cuts by Holly Brickley (Crown, Feb. 25): When a woman named Percy Marks meets Joe Morrow in early 2000s Berkeley, they connect over music—he writes it, she has thoughts about it. When Joe releases an album, and then another, with songs co-written by her, things get complicated, though she didn’t want credit. Our starred review says that Brickley “lovingly evokes the indie scene of the early 21st century…while deftly crafting the bumpy emotional journey of her insufferably opinionated, touchingly vulnerable heroine.”

The Grand Scheme of Things by Warona Jay (Washington Square Press/Atria, Feb. 25): Relebogile Naledi Mpho Moruakgomo is a Black woman living in London; she’s acquiesced to British culture by using the nickname “Eddie.” When she can’t find a producer for her first play, she asks her wealthy white friend Hugo Smith to submit it under his name and—surprise, surprise—it becomes a big success. Our starred review says, “There are as many layers here as in a croissant and it’s just as rich, but beware of enjoying it too much—Jay is always exposing new levels of rancidity in the world.”

Dead Money by Jakob Kerr (Bantam, Jan. 28): Tech executive Kerr debuts with a twisty search for the killer of Trevor Canon, a tech-company founder. Mackenzie Clyde is told by Roger Hammersmith, her boss—an investor in Trevor’s startup—to help the FBI find the killer, since a recent addendum to Trevor’s will means all his money (including Roger’s investment) will be frozen until his murder is solved. “This surprising nesting doll of a thriller, in which no one is who they appear to be, layers one story within another within another,” according to our starred review.

Going Home by Tom Lamont (Knopf, Jan. 14): Call it “Two Men, One of Their Fathers, and a Toddler”: When Lia Woods dies unexpectedly, it’s left to her school friend Téo Erskine, who’d been babysitting, to take care of her 2-year-old son, Joel, with help from his ailing father, Vic, and another friend, Ben Mossam, with an assist from their rabbi, Sibyl Challis. “A great premise, a great story, but most of all, great characters,” says our starred review.

Laurie Muchnick is the fiction editor.