The 25 best books of 2025

We Are Inseparable by Han Kang

We Are Inseparable was released in English translation in February, although it was originally published in Han Kang’s native South Korea in 2021, and thus helped contribute to the body of work that won her the 2024 Nobel Prize for Literature. Drawing comparisons to her Booker Prize-winning bestseller, The Vegetarian, and similarly blurring the lines between dreams and reality, We Are Inseparable explores the relationship between two women, Kyunga and Inson, while revealing A violent and forgotten chapter in Korean history. The Los Angeles Times calls “We Are Inseparable”: “Brilliant and profoundly disturbing.” She wrote of Han Kang: “It is her unique ability to find connections between body and spirit and to experiment with form and style that makes her one of the most important writers in the world.” (RL)

Stag Dance by Tori Peters

A follow-up to Torrey Peters’ critically acclaimed debut Detransition, Baby is a collection of tales, each with an interesting premise, ranging in genre from romance to dystopia to historical. In The Masker, a young partygoer on a fun-filled weekend in Las Vegas must choose between two mentors, a mysterious man or a seasoned transwoman; In The Chaser, an illicit romance unfolds at a boarding school; In the titular Stag Dance, a group of 19th-century lumberjacks, working deep in the woods, plan a winter dance—with some of the men volunteering to attend as women. The Chicago Review of Books compares the collection favorably to Peters’ debut, calling the stories “seductive, dazzling, and once again history-making.” The Guardian is similarly rapturous: “The pieces are very finely choreographed; especially the stag dance, with its skillful rhythm and almost operatic finale.” She adds that writing is “mischievous, not hypocritical,” and “clearly having a lot of fun.” (pound)

Riverhead Books, Penguin Random House

Theft by Abdul Razzaq Qurna

“A quietly powerful display of mastery of storytelling,” writes Theft Watcher, the 11th novel from the 2021 Nobel Prize winner in Literature. Set against the backdrop of post-colonial East Africa, between Zanzibar and Dar es Salaam in Tanzania, Theft is a coming-of-age story that explores the inner lives of three teenagers – Karim, Badr and Fauzia – who bond despite growing up in very different circumstances. The Economist wrote: “A focused, beautifully textured examination of friendship and betrayal”, while The Wall Street Journal praised Jurna’s “restraint”, adding: “He builds his fictional worlds cumulatively, with equal attention to the ‘many things’ that make up the experience. There are no single facts in this mature, consistent novel, which may be why it feels right as a whole.” (RL)

Global by Natasha Brown

Natasha Brown’s celebrated debut novel of 2021, The Society, was a short, nuanced novel and dissection of class and race that was shortlisted for several awards. In her follow-up, she examines how identity politics is satirically deployed, mocking cancel culture and the worlds of publishing and journalism. The story begins with a questionable article trying to unravel a mystery involving an illegal rave, a missing gold bar, and a banker. The novel soon moves to the repercussions of exposure and the harmful impact of people affected by crime. “It’s enormous, nasty fun,” says the literary review. “Infidelity, exploitation and hatred abound… Brown’s main aim is to satirise the social and economic forces that have shaped life in the UK since late 2010.” Cosmopolitanism is “quite funny,” says the New Statesman. “Brown is an astute political observer, effortlessly cutting through cancel culture and our media circus.” (pound)

Names by Florence Knapp

Knapp’s first novel begins in 1987, with Cora Atkin considering three different names for her newborn baby: Gordon, after her abusive doctor husband; Bear, the choice of her eldest daughter Maya; Or whatever you prefer, Julian. With the premise that each potential name offers a unique fate, the narrative splits up, revisiting its characters at seven-year intervals in a manner reminiscent of Sliding Doors. Despite its dark subject matter, “Names” has been praised by critics for its upbeat and cheerful effect. “Knapp’s deftly woven story is at once a big, bold experiment, a playful exercise in nominative determinism, a meditation on fate and a coming-of-age story,” wrote The Standard, while The Washington Post calls the novel: “a profound and deeply emotional examination of domestic violence,” which is “astonishingly exhilarating and paced like a thriller.” (RL)

Penguin Press, Viking, Pamela Dorman Books

The Emperor of Happiness by Ocean Vuong

Ocean Vuong’s second novel The Emperor of Happiness: “May be the first great American novel of the millennium,” according to The Art Review. It is: “perfectly tuned,” and “as expansive as it is quiet and delicate.” It tells the story of Hay, a young gay man who runs away from home, and his coming of age in the rural Northeast in the Obama era in the United States. It also explores his friendship with Grazyna, an elderly Lithuanian widow suffering from dementia. Hai finds work at a fast food chain and forms relationships with his mixed group of new colleagues, who discover connection in their past hardships. “The Emperor of Happiness” is: “A fine-grained social panorama driven by the developing camaraderie among a group of actors bound by instability and pain,” says The Observer. (pound)

Eden Beach by Oisín Fagan

“A stunning tale of a tale,” the hero of this brutal seafaring epic is Angel Kelly, a late 18th-century slave trader who heads to Brazil with the goal of establishing a utopian society; Chaos ensues and he reaches the shores of an unnamed Spanish colony. With a harrowing attention to detail, Fagan spares little in describing the violence of the slave trade with black humor and an experimental approach to form. “Eden’s Shore is a rich, beautiful tale of toxic adventure,” TLS wrote, while the Financial Times wrote: “Alexander’s expansive performance is designed to encompass both the deeply physical experiences of the voyage – illness, sex, seasickness, violence – and its more cerebral aspects, in which the politics, philosophy and utopian utopias of the time find expression.” (RL)

Dream State by Eric Bochner

A multi-generational family saga, Dream State explores themes of love, betrayal, and the effects of the choices we make across generations. Beginning in 2004, the story takes place in a rapidly warming fictional version of Montana’s Flathead Valley, with the lake in the center of the valley serving as the nucleus of the story. Dream State spans five decades, “gradually merging into a seemingly monumental family history,” says Lit Hub. The effect is: “A hypnotically telescopic view of people we have known across decades. Büchner’s manipulation of time is among the most enchanting elements of his novel.” His account: “It can slide from the funny to the horrific as quickly as a young man can skateboard to his death.” Oprah Winfrey selected Dream State as a book club selection, calling Bochner “a master storyteller” and the book: “a brilliant examination of the most important relationships we have in our lives.” (pound)

Scribner, John Murray

Dream Hotel by Laila Alami

Lalami’s fifth novel, longlisted for the 2025 Women’s Prize for Fiction, is a harrowing meditative story about the terrifying extent of technology and surveillance. When Sarah returns to Los Angeles International Airport after a conference, she is stopped by the DRA, who determine – using data from her dreams – that she is about to harm her husband. She is transferred to a detention center to be monitored for 21 days, where she – along with other Dreamers – finds her journey back to her family becoming more and more elusive. “A vision with chilling credibility,” The Spectator wrote of the Dream Hotel, continuing that it “brilliantly exploits the horrors of our time,” while The Economist calls it “an intriguing story about the dangers of compromising privacy for comfort.” (RL)

Confessions of Katherine Airey

The debut of new voice Katherine Airey was widely praised. Confessions traces the paths of three generations of women as they grapple with the weight of the past in all its complexities. In 2001, New Yorker Cora Brady, newly orphaned by 9/11 and on the cusp of adulthood, is offered a new life in Ireland – where her parents grew up – by her estranged aunt. “The narrative runs hand in hand with Donna Tartt’s restless wit, full of real twists and surprises,” says the Irish Independent. “Confessions is a stunning, fascinating novel that truly deserves all the awards that come its way.” The Guardian says: “The book is an odyssey: its serious pleasures are its breadth and scope, and Airey’s rare and special instinct for interesting scenes or worlds, from the New York art kids of the 1970s to the early female players.” He concludes that Confessions is “a brilliant, bold portrait of female pain and liberation.” (pound)

The Body by David Szalay

Szalay’s most acclaimed work, All That Man, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2016, explored masculinity in the twenty-first century through the lives of nine different men. One man’s journey from adolescence to adulthood is the subject of the body. We first meet 15-year-old István in Hungary where he lives with his mother, then he begins a relationship with a much older woman with tragic consequences, joins the army and then rises to the top of London society. With Flesh, Szalay uses a more condensed version of his simple, spare prose to explore the meaning of life. “The body is not just about the unspeakable…”, the Guardian wrote, “it is also about the fundamentally unsayable, the indescribable things that lie at the heart of every life, hovering just beyond the reach of language.” The Observer praises Flesh: “an insight into the way we live now” and calls it a “masterpiece”. (RL)

—

If you liked this story Subscribe to the Essential List newsletter – A handpicked collection of unmissable features, videos and news, delivered to your inbox twice a week.

For more culture stories from the BBC, stay tuned Facebook and Instagram.