Nonfiction Books

From conspiracy theories wreaking havoc in US politics to poignant memoirs of painful events around the globe, the books shortlisted for the 2025 Orwell Prizes, the UK's most prestigious awards for writing about politics, have been announced. These are the eight books shortlisted for the 'Orwell Prize for Political Writing,' awarded annually to a nonfiction book. The comments are from the judging panel, chaired by UK diplomat and former ambassador to the US Kim Darroch.

From books exploring questions of identity and belonging in contemporary China to a charming memoir by a delivery driver, it's been an extraordinary year for books about China in English argues Jeffrey Wasserstrom, a professor at UC Irvine and specialist in modern Chinese history. Here, he talks us through some of his favourite China books published in 2025.

From the death of Stalin and the career of Putin's chef to shaministic rituals on the Indonesian island of Siberut, Five Books editor Sophie Roell gives an overview of some of the excellent new nonfiction books that have appeared since April.

As March draws to a close, Sophie Roell, editor of Five Books, looks at some of the nonfiction books that have come out in the first three months of 2025, from the biography of one of the world's great female leaders to better ways to measure a country's economy.

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.

The Pulitzer Prize for Biography is awarded annually to "a distinguished and appropriately documented" biography by an author from or based in the United States. The authors of winning books receive $15,000, and join a starry pantheon of great American writers. Here, we've put together a summary of all the Pulitzer-winning biographies since the turn of the millennium.

The nonfiction book prizes we cover at Five Books are a great way to keep up with books on important subjects that are written in an accessible and engaging way. We keep an eye on prizes in a range of nonfiction genres—including history, politics, business, science, sports and general nonfiction.

"All the best stories are true" runs the tagline of the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction, the UK's pre-eminent nonfiction book award. This year, to celebrate the prize's 25th birthday, a panel of judges picked out books for a winner of winners award, making for an excellent collection of nonfiction books from the last quarter of a century, as Five Books editor Sophie Roell explains.

It's a golden age for historical writing, as well-researched and sometimes quite specialist books by historians are written in an engaging style for a broad audience. History books out in recent months range from ancient Assyria to the CIA in the 21st century.

The Soviet Union was the world's first communist country and lasted around seven decades. It played a key role in defeating Nazism in Europe and became a global superpower before collapsing unexpectedly in 1991. Sheila Fitzpatrick, a leading historian of the Soviet Union, recommends books that bring to life different aspects of it, from forced labour in Glavnoye Upravleniye LAGerey (GULAG) to the heady days of the Khrushchev thaw and including the memoir of Stalin's beloved daughter, Svetlana Alliluyeva.