The Best Novels of 2025: The Booker Prize Shortlist, recommended by Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀
We spoke to Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀, the novelist and judge on this year’s Booker Prize panel, about their 2025 shortlist: a varied line-up of six novels, from a work of historical fiction set in a frozen rural England to an experimental ‘Rorschach blot’ of a novel told in two conflicting parts.
NEW HISTORY BOOKS A Cool Head in Hell by Harry Silman and Jackie Passman
“The newly published diaries of a British doctor who survived the horrors of the Burma Railway in World War II, beautifully put together by his daughter and incredibly touching in its understatedness”—Sophie Roell, editor, Five Books
NONFICTION BOOKS How to End a Story: Collected Diaries by Helen Garner
🏆 Winner of the 2025 Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction
“The moment I finished it, I wanted to read it again. I realized how brilliant it was and wanted to check all the things I’d missed”—Robbie Millen, chair of the 2025 judging panel
HORROR BOOKS
🏆 Winner 2025 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a Novel
“Three young girls escape a mysterious event that otherwise traps their neighbourhood behind a ghostly veil. Why?…If you prefer creepy, atmospheric, character-driven stories as opposed to bloody gore-fests, then this is the book for you.”—Cal Flyn, deputy editor Five Books
BEAUTIFUL BOOKS Frankenstein; or The Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley and illustrated by MinaLima
Out last week in time for Halloween is a new edition of Frankenstein, beautifully illustrated by artists Miraphora Mira and Eduardo Lima. It includes pull-outs, like a page from Victor Frankenstein’s diary.
SPY BOOKS
OUT NOW IN THE US: A Spy Alone by Charles Beaumont
“Spy Alone is a debut novel by Charles Beaumont (not his real name), an ex-MI6 operative…The main protagonist is an ex-spy, who has left the service and is down on his luck a bit, financially. There’s a lot of tradecraft.”—Shane Whaley, host Spybrary podcast
BIOGRAPHY Prairie Fires by Caroline Fraser 🏆 Winner of the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Biography
“Caroline Fraser―the editor of the Library of America edition of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House series―draws together insights from unpublished manuscripts, letters, diaries, and land and financial records”—Cal Flyn, deputy editor, Five Books
CRIME NOVELS Hangover Square by Patrick Hamilton
“It’s just an incredibly written, claustrophobic book that would be in my top five almost any day you rang me…And he can be funny too, about fairly nasty things”—Simon Brett, crime novelist
NOBEL PRIZE IN LITERATURE The Melancholy of Resistance by László Krasznahorkai
🏆 Winner of the 2025 Nobel Prize in Literature
“My absolute favourite among Krasznahorkai’s novels.”—Ellen Mattson, Nobel committee member and author
NEW BOOKS/FANTASY Katabasis by RF Kuang
“This is the perfect beach read for fans of Five Books, set at Cambridge University and full of jokes about the intellectual life. It’s 500+ pages, but I read it in two days (at home, as it’s too cold for the beach by now)”—Sophie Roell, editor, Five Books
MYSTERIES All She Was Worth by Miyuki Miyabe
“It’s a mystery story about capitalism and the bubble economy. It’s easy to think that if you get into debt, it’s your own fault…This book makes us deliberate a moment and scrutinizes this matter from a different perspective.”—On Nomoto, grandson of Seishi Yokomizo
SCIENCE BOOKS Light in the Darkness by Heino Falcke
“This is a book for people that are interested in how the first image of a black hole was made. The first image was released in April 2019. Heino Falcke gives a first-hand view, because he was part of the Event Horizon Telescope team.”—Lynn Gamwell, art historian and science writer
MEMOIR Twenty Letters to a Friend by Svetlana Alliluyeva
“Stalin had three children, but the one he was closest to when she was young was Svetlana…Her mother died by her own hand—evidently after a quarrel with Stalin—when Svetlana was about six”—Sheila Fitzpatrick, historian
FANTASY FICTION The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin 🏆 Winner of the 2016 Hugo Award for Best Novel
“The world of these books is so unsettling and compelling, really brilliantly drawn. We’re on a planet disrupted periodically by its climate, a harsh period known as ‘the fifth season’”—Sylvia Bishop, SFF editor, Five Books
THE BEST KINDLES IN 2025 Which Kindle to get?
“That’s an easy question for me, Kindle Paperwhite is the most popular Kindle by far…It has all the best features that you would want”—Maneetpaul Singh, Kindle reviewer and author of Kindle Bookworm
NONFICTION BOOKS Hitler by Ian Kershaw
“I don’t think that any historian should ever accept that a book is definitive. But I don’t see Kershaw’s work on Hitler really ever being surpassed”—Antony Beevor, military historian
HISTORICAL FICTION Green Darkness by Anya Seton
“There’s a lot of mystery to it. A group of people convene in Kent for a house party in the 1960s. It turns out they are all reincarnations of people who lived in Tudor times, in the reign of Edward VI. You have to work out who was who in a previous life…It’s a brilliant book.”—Alison Weir, historical novelist and historian
FUNNY BOOKS Good Material: A Novel by Dolly Alderton
“If you like bittersweet, funny romantic comedies, then this is your book….Have a laugh, have a cry, put some good music on the radio—you’ll have a wonderful time”—Justin Albert, Wodehouse Prize judge
HISTORY BOOKS The Devil Reached the Sky by Garrett Graff 🎧 Winner of an AudioFile Earphones Award for a truly exceptional audiobook
“He puts together the story of the Manhattan Project and the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki using 450+ first-person accounts”—Five Books editors
BOOKS FOR KIDS Scareground by Angela Kecojevic
“This novel, featuring a magical fairground, explores the distinction between a delicious thrill we might want to seek and the terror of real fear.”—Tuva Kahrs, Children’s Editor, Five Books
THE BEST MYSTERY BOOKS OF 2025, our annual list of prize shortlists and personal favourites, curated by Five Books editor, Sophie Roell
“A broad range of books are filed under ‘mysteries’ these days, and we try to give a flavour of what’s out there”
AI BOOKS ChatGPT-4 offers its own opinions on artificial intelligence “These books offer valuable insights into the development, challenges, and future prospects of AI”—ChatGPT-4, AI chatbot
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