The Best Biographies: The 2025 NBCC Shortlist, recommended by Mary Ann Gwinn
We always look forward to the shortlists for the National Book Critics Awards, on the basis that literary critics are probably the best read people out there. Here, we asked the garlanded critic Mary Ann Gwinn to talk us through the five biographies highlighted in 2025.
HISTORY BOOKS Peacemakers by Margaret MacMillan 🏆 Winner of the 2002 Baillie Gifford Prize for Nonfiction
“This is the best shortcut to the history of the 20th century.”—James Purnell, politician
HISTORICAL FICTION Sparrow by James Hynes
“It’s really gorgeous and engrossing, and you can smell and feel the setting, a city on the Iberian peninsula in the dying days of the Roman Empire”—Paul Carlucci, historical novelist
NONFICTION BOOKS The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher by Kate Summerscale 🏆 Winner of the 2008 Baillie Gifford Prize for Nonfiction
“Many crimes can also tell you something larger about society, and this one got very much at the notion of how we feel about the sanctity of our home”—David Grann, writer
CLASSIC ENGLISH LITERATURE Novels by the Brontë sisters (1816-1855)
“Life is so constructed that the event does not, cannot, will not, match the expectation”—Charlotte Brontë, Villette
FANTASY Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke
“It’s a magic that feels absolutely real, as if the book were an eyewitness account. Not since Lewis has the supernatural been such a thrilling, immediate, concrete presence on the page”—Lev Grossman, critic and novelist
NONFICTION BOOKS Our Enemies Will Vanish by Yaroslav Trofimov
“Trofimov explains how the bloodiest war Europe has seen since 1945 broke out, and sets out with admirable clarity what is at stake for Ukraine, as well as for the rest of the world”—Peter Frankopan, chair, 2024 Orwell Prize for Political Writing
THE BEST BOOKS FOR KIDS Can You Get Rainbows in Space? by Dr Sheila Kanani
🏆 Winner of the 2024 Royal Society Young People’s Book Prize
“We all loved finding out about why some monkeys have red bottoms”—Tiani, aged 11
SPY THRILLERS Beirut Station by Paul Vidich
“Paul Vidich is so good…People write to me and say, ‘I would never have discovered Paul Vidich if it wasn’t for you and now I can’t get enough of it.’”—Shane Whaley, host, Spybrary podcast
FICTION The Overstory by Richard Powers
🏆 Winner of the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
“Overstory by Richard Powers, a work of genius which won the Pulitzer Prize, is one of the most ambitious and successful pieces of fiction that I’ve read”—Lawrence Buell, Harvard University
NEW LITERARY FICTION The Empusium: A Health Resort Horror Story by Olga Tokarczuk
“The Nobel Prize-winner returns with what has been described variously as ‘a satirical take’ and ‘a feminist twist’ on Thomas Mann’s The Magic Mountain“—Cal Flyn, deputy editor, Five Books
ECONOMICS BOOKS The Worldly Philosophers by Robert L. Heilbroner
“This is a great book. It still has not been equalled. It’s a run through where the classical economists came from, who they were, what they thought and why they thought what they though”—Brad DeLong Furman, economist, UC Berkeley
TOP ‘ROMANTASY’ BOOKS to get you started
“A word of warning—these books are real page turners and you’ll find yourself reading until the early hours of the morning”—Francesca Martin, journalist
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ROMANTASY Quicksilver by Callie Hart
“This is book one in a two-part romantasy series…and has a brilliant plot twist/cliff hanger at the end of the first book.”—Francesca Martin, journalist
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
SCIENCE FICTION The Best Sci-Fi Books of the Past Decade, a round-up by Sylvia Bishop
“Fans vote every year for the best of sci fi and fantasy, in both the Hugo Awards and the Nebula Awards”
SCIENCE FICTION
Five of the best ‘hard’ sci-fi novels, as recommended by Adrian Tschaikovsky “If you’re writing with the left wall of actually fitting in with the science, then that pushes you into interesting territory.”
MILITARY HISTORY British military historian Sir Antony Beevor on the best books on World War II
“Goebbels was a diabolical genius. He saw that hatred was not enough and you had to combine hatred with fear if you were going to get the maximum killing potential out of your followers”
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