A startling debut that celebrates the power of words and the redemptive energy of a mother's love.
A fine album, it had the misfortune to emerge at the same time as Portishead's startling debut Dummy, to which it was unfavourably compared in almost every review.
He made a startling debut for Australia in the short game, making 89 from 64 balls against South Africa in January last year.
It's Christmastime in Kenya in "An Ex-Mas Feast," the first short story in Uwem Akpan's startling debut collection, "Say You're One of Them".
Lord knows how he got the manuscript of "Red Sparrow" past the redacting committee at Langley, but he has turned his considerable knowledge of espionage into a startling debut.
I don't know what to expect for 'Heartbeats.' It's like it's my debut feature here in the U.S". "I Killed My Mother," written when he was 16, was a startling debut for a filmmaker of any age.
Men in Space by Tom McCarthy Alma Books £12.99, pp278 Tom McCarthy's second novel is an inspired shift from the cold, unidentified narrator's voice that was central to the success of Remainder, his startling debut of last year.
HH (Rough Trade) Laura Marling proved that her startling debut, Alas I Cannot Swim, was not just a precocious one-off when she followed it with last year's I Speak Because I Can.
Writer/director, The Babadook The Babadook "will scare the hell out of you", said Exorcist director William Friedkin of the startling debut feature from Australian actor-turned-writer/director Jennifer Kent.
Venice's surprise Golden Lion winner was Venezuelan queer thriller From Afar, a startling debut for director Lorenzo Vigas that did indeed get a leg-up from the New Mexican Cinema movement: recent Cannes prizewinner Michel Franco and Oscar-nominated screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga are among its producers.
