The Best Fiction Books

While rooted in specific Chinese contexts, these books transcend cultural boundaries and speak to universal questions about dignity, freedom, identity, and the longing to be seen, says novelist and writer Lijia Zhang. She talks us through five of the best works of fiction to come out of mainland China in the twentieth century.

Weird fiction uses the supernatural to throw all our experience into doubt, says author and academic Michael Cisco. He introduces us to five favourites, featuring everything from ghosts to fairies to cults – all subtly constructed, infused with real human feeling, and calculated to perturb.

From K-pop bands to webtoons, from award-winning cinema to blockbuster dramas such as Squid Game, Korean culture has taken the world by storm in recent years. But how about Korean literature? We asked Kim Ho-Yeon, author of bestselling novel The Second Chance Convenience Store, to introduce us to five unmissable 21st-century Korean novels.

From a book based on the actual love letters a British prime minister sent to his mistress in the run-up to World War I, to a fantastical tale that takes its cue from the Epic of Gilgamesh, there's a wide variety of novels to choose from on the shortlist of this year's Orwell Prize for Political Fiction. The comments are from the judging panel, chaired this year by British novelist Jim Crace.

John le Carré—often credited as the best spy novelist of all time—wrote 26 books over the course of his career. We asked Nick Harkaway, his son and the author of Karla's Choice (the best spy thriller of 2024, according to our interview with spy book expert Shane Whaley), to select the five best John le Carré novels: from the Cold War espionage stories that made his name to more contemporary thrillers set in a world of international crime syndicates.

Every year, judges for the International Booker Prize search for the best works of fiction translated into English over the previous twelve months. We asked Anton Hur, the novelist, translator and 2025 judge, to talk us through the six-book shortlist—including five novels and this year's winner, the first short story collection ever to triumph.

Every year, the judges of the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction highlight the very best new books published in that genre over the past twelve months. In 2025, the six book shortlist features historical novels set as widely apart as ancient Sicily, 16th-century England, and 20th century Holland. Here, judge Katharine Grant talks us through their selection.

Dark academia is a phenomenon with deep roots, says bestselling author Lev Grossman. He introduces five of the best examples, covering secret societies, gentleman scholars, boarding schools – and unforgettable descents into darkness. We have long told stories about forbidden knowledge: now, we make it look good.

The 2025 shortlist for the Women's Prize for Fiction features a family saga about formerly rich Iranian refugees, a surprisingly funny tale of ISIS brides and a "weird" midlife crisis adventure in suburban California. We asked the bestselling novelist—chair of this year's judging panel—to talk us through the six finalists.

Every year, the Pulitzer Prize jury awards $15,000 to a work of "distinguished fiction published during the year by an American author, preferably dealing with American life." We've compiled a guide to the books that have won this prize since the turn of the millennium.