Best Books of 2025: 11 Releases to Add to Your Reading List

Bookworms rejoice! A whole year of new books to devour is almost upon us. To help you prep, we’ve picked a selection of the most compelling reads 2025 has to offer. From the devastation the 9/11 attacks wreak on a teenage girl to a forensic investigation into the agonies of romantic jealousy and a jaw-dropping memoir that lifts the lid on the politics at play inside the kitchens of London’s most exclusive restaurants, the stack on your nightstand is set to be more riveting than ever. 

Below, read our list of the most anticipated 2025 book releases. 

Disappoint Me by Nicola Dinan

From 23 January

In the follow-up to her award-winning and critically acclaimed first novel Bellies, Dinan examines the pain and growth that disillusionment brings. The story is primarily that of Max, a young, professional trans woman who, after a less than ideal start to the year, begins dating Vincent: a kind, capable, seemingly enlightened lawyer with a compelling history of his own. As Max navigates her relationship with Vincent, as well as complex dynamics with her family and best friend, she must confront whether someone’s past defines them. Dinan writes so intelligently about regret, remorse and hope – and still manages to nail humour, too.

Confessions by Catherine Airey

From 23 January

Airey’s debut novel begins on 9/11 when 16-year-old Cora Brady is skipping school and waiting for her boyfriend to show up at her apartment – unbeknownst to her father who works in the North Tower of the World Trade Centre. In the days that follow the attack, Cora walks the streets of New York searching for her father while contemplating orphanhood: her mother died eight years earlier. When she is given a home across the Atlantic in the Irish town her parents hailed from, Cora begins to unpack her family history.  Airey writes about utter devastation with immediacy and precision but never melodrama. Confessions is simply beautiful.

Love in Exile by Shon Faye

From 6 February

Part memoir, part manifesto, Shon Faye’s second book is a forensic investigation into love: what it means and who it is for. She unpacks her own experiences of love, covering desire, addiction and heartbreak, making a case for society learning to view love in broader terms. As a trans woman, Faye writes compellingly about love outside of heteronormative structures and how this can contribute to a sense of exclusion. Love in Exile will speak to anyone who has ever felt that this most universal feeling was out of their reach – that they are unworthy, deluded or incapable and reframes what love is.

The City Changes Its Face by Eimear McBride

From 13 February

Eimear McBride’s prose – avant-garde, modern and experimental – has won her legions of fans, seduced by how she handles words in completely surprising and lyrical ways. The City Changes Its Face won’t disappoint as far as language is concerned, while the plot itself is meaty and dramatic; a love story charting an intense two-year period in the relationship between Eily and Stephen. London – its rush and dirt and lights – feels like a character in and of itself, as witness and reflection to the complexities of love.

Perfection by Vincenzo Latronico

From 13 February

This sharp, biting novel examines what happens when we get lost in the gulf between Instagram and reality. Anna and Tom are typical millennials: they are creatives living in Berlin in an apartment adorned with succulents. They capture their impressive tastes and opinions and adventures digitally and post them online. But despite having a jealousy-inducing life, where everything is just so, the couple sink into ennui and yawning emptiness as they grapple with a lack of fulfilment. Perfection is a brilliant, uncomfortable commentary on how easy it is for anyone with a smartphone to lose their grip on authenticity.

Hunchback by Saou Ichikawa

From 6 March

Written by the first disabled author to win Japan’s most prestigious literary award, Hunchback is the story of Shake Isawa, born with a congenital muscle disorder and confined to an electric wheelchair within her care home. As a result, her life is lived online, writing filthy fiction for an erotica website. When one of her carers reveals that he has read her work, she responds with an indecent proposal. Hunchback, written with guts and wit, is a tender and defiant story which forces readers to think far beyond ableist concepts of who gets to desire and be desired.

Universality: A Novel by Natasha Brown

From 13 March

Opening with a lengthy expose by a young journalist hellbent on working out who is responsible for a vicious attack at a remote Yorkshire farmhouse (weapon – solid gold bullion), Universality presents initially as a thriller – albeit shot through with satire. However, the real detective work relates to how media discourse and the potency of words distorts and damages society. Via brilliantly drawn and deeply unsavoury characters hungry for wealth and power, Brown dissects the influence of language, using her own razor sharp prose.

Name by Constance Debre

From 17 April

The third and final book in her acclaimed trilogy, Name sees Constance Debré take aim at the French class system in this brilliantly spiky novel. In essence, the narrator rejects her name, seeking freedom and independence from her inheritance and all the privileges that came with it. She wants to ‘disown’ the past, to no longer be shackled to one’s origins or any expectation attached to them. But as well as boasting compelling, sharp prose, Name forces readers to question what one’s name means – and to who.

The Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong

From 15 May

Ocean Vuong’s second novel follows the huge critical success of his first – and promises to be just as beautiful. The Emperor of Gladness is set in New England and the plot, which takes place over the course of a year, focuses on an unlikely friendship between a suicidal teenage man and an elderly widow living with dementia. Their respective vulnerabilities result in an extraordinary bond. Sad, haunting but ultimately hopeful this is a gut punch and an warm embrace rendered out of poetic, tender prose.

The Possession by Annie Ernaux

From 22 May

Anyone who has ever felt completely hijacked by intense, debilitating jealousy will relate to protagonist in The Possession as she fixates on her former lover’s new lover. She projects her ideas and judgements of this woman – the Other – onto those she passes in the street or on the train. She tortures herself with fantasies of the Other as an orgasmic, sensual beauty – promoting her to an omnipresent nightmare living in her own mind.

The title relates to the sense of ownership that couples can have for one another – as well as the overwhelming feeling that a person has of being taken over by a force stronger than oneself. Ernaux writes with painful honesty, detailing how her jealousy is all consuming but also energising and empowering. This is the first time The Possession has been published in the UK; it was initially published in French in 2002.

Tart by Slutty Cheff

From 17 July

Written by an anonymous London-based chef, this memoir is, according to its publishers, “THE book for those who like to eat and f**k”. In a tale of wild thrills, Slutty Cheff writes about the chaos and drama that simmers in the city’s kitchens where she plies her trade and falls in love. Dolly Alderton likens Slutty Cheff to “a young Anthony Bourdain”, while Girls creator Lena Dunham says, “I devoured this book like a ravenous customer and I love it wildly. It’s the most visceral food and sex writing out there – utterly delicious and utterly new.”