This is a list of critically acclaimed debut novels, sourced from "Nabokov's Favorite Word Is Mauve" (Blatt, 2017).
According to the source, a book was included in the list if:
(1) It was an author's first novel
(2) it was published between 1980 and 2014 (extended to 2018 by me)
(3) it was a finalist for, or winner of, the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, The National Book Award, or the National Book Critics Circle Award.