The Best Fiction Books

Iris Murdoch gained fame as a novelist, a philosopher and, perhaps most prominently of all, for her public and rapid decline (and posthumous immortalization by her husband John Bayley) after an early diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease. But now, more than a century on from her birth, the attention is returning back to her work. Miles Leeson, Director of the Iris Murdoch Centre at the University of Chichester, recommends what books to read from her canon of 27 novels.

Every year, the judges of the Arthur C Clarke Award select the best sci-fi novels of the previous twelve months. We asked prize director Tom Hunter to talk us through the six science fiction books that made the 2023 shortlist—including a space opera romance and a high-concept action thriller that has already won the most prestigious award in Francophone literature. See our list of The Best Science Fiction of 2024

In The Neil Gaiman Reader, fans from around the world chose which of Neil Gaiman's writings they liked the best, a great introduction to his writing for anyone not familiar with his work. Here the prolific, genre-bending author recommends some of his own favourite books: comfort reads to turn to in difficult times.

New novels are piling up ready for summer 2023—but which of them should go straight to the top of your reading list? Five Books deputy editor Cal Flyn offers a round-up of some of the most notable fiction titles of the season, including eagerly anticipated novels from Emma Cline and Naoise Dolan, plus a fictionalised account of the making of a blockbuster movie by Tom Hanks.

Science fiction helps us work through not only the possibilities of the cosmos but also the nature of humanity itself, argues Jaime Green—science writer and author of a new book on the search for alien biology, The Possibility of Life. Here she highlights five classic works of sci-fi that explore ideas of consciousness and communication in the setting of outer space.

Journalist Robert McCrum spent two years selecting the best novels ever written in English. Here he narrows it down to just five: a perfect introduction to the best fiction the English language has to offer.

Like all great books, India's best novels are worth reading not just because of what they show about India, but what they reveal about the human condition. Here Radhika Jha, author of four critically acclaimed books, talks us through five important Indian novels and novelists and explains why it's so important that fiction isn't just about personal experience.

Spring is always an excellent time for literary fiction releases, and 2023 is no exception. Here, Five Books deputy editor Cal Flyn offers a round-up of the notable new novels of the season, from buzzy debuts to hotly anticipated new releases from internationally acclaimed authors like Eleanor Catton, Han Kang, and Salman Rushdie.

Every year, the Women's Prize for Fiction highlights the best novels written by women over the previous twelve months. In 2023, the six-strong Women's Prize shortlist features the latest books by beloved bestsellers Barbara Kingsolver and Maggie O'Farrell, plus a debut novel set during the siege of Sarajevo and a book told primarily from the point of view of a dolphin.

The Orwell Prizes are the UK's most prestigious prizes for writing about politics, awarded annually to books and articles that best meet George Orwell's own ambition "to make political writing into an art." Boyd Tonkin, chair of this year's judges, talks us through the books shortlisted for the 2023 Orwell Prize for Political Fiction.