I don't think this is his "debut" novel because he published Mitko in 2010. From the synopsis, the stories sound similar.

@1 -- It's true there was a novella (which ended up as the first 50 or so pages of "What Belongs to You") that was published previously, but this is his first full-length novel.

You may not care for "devouring the pavement", but it's not really an eccentric choice; it's actually a bit of a clichéd verb phrase. It's in multiple more-or-less published works, if you do a search.