'Exceptional' Last year's Encore winner, Evie Wyld, in Peckham, south London.
'Exceptional': last year's Encore winner, Evie Wyld, in Peckham, south London. Photograph: Antonio Olmos
At the beginning of each year, alongside announcements of new works by eminent novelists, come more unfamiliar tidings: the debut writers tipped for greatness by publishers and reviewers, either in the expectation of high sales or critical approval – and preferably both. This is entirely as it should be: there already exist enough terrific books to last us many lifetimes, but a healthy literary culture demands change and renewal to prevent itself from becoming a dead one.

 Yet a writer’s life is not limited to the dramatic moment of first exposure or the excitement that greets the new work of the well established. In particular, as suggested by the phrase “the difficult second novel”, things can get tough after first publication. If your first book has gone like the clappers, you’ll probably be feeling pressure, both self-generated and from expectant publishers; at the same time, especially in these times of burgeoning literary festivals and live events, your schedule may seem to conspire against you ever writing another word. And if your first book has not gone well, as is the fate of many excellent novels in a crowded marketplace, then life is even more tricky.

 Different manifestations of second-novel syndrome abound, some extreme: 24 years separated Marilynne Robinson’s debut novel, Housekeeping, and the acclaimed Gilead in 2004; both won Pulitzer prizes, and Gilead was followed in far more short order by the related novels Home and Lila. Some novelists confine themselves to a single novel, although they might continue, like JD Salinger and Oscar Wilde, to write wonderfully in other fictional forms; some, like Arundhati Roy, appear to have redirected their energies so comprehensively that, even if a follow-up is hinted at, it does not materialise. It is also, often, a case of expectation skewing critical perception and reception. Zadie Smith’s The Autograph Man, published in 2002 two years after the sensation of her debut, White Teeth, is often seen as a mildly wrong turn, but it is, for my money, a deeply funny and strange book. Could Donna Tartt, having made fans of The Secret History pant for more for a decade, ever charm them with an intense and gothic tale of child death as she tried to do with The Little Friend?
Eleanor Catton won the Booker with her second novel, The Luminaries.

Eleanor Catton won the Booker with her second novel, The Luminaries. Photograph: Martin Godwin
And yet: Pride and Prejudice is a second novel, as is Jane Eyre. Joseph Heller’s Something Happened is regarded by many as a finer book than Catch-22. The Luminaries, Eleanor Catton’s second novel, made her the youngest ever winner of the Man Booker prize in 2013.
More