Best Novels of 2025

NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE WASHINGTON POST, TIME MAGAZINE, MARIE CLAIRE, BOOK RIOT, ESQUIRE, KIRKUS, PUBLISHERS WEEKLY AND MORE! ONE OF BARACK OBAMA'S FAVORITE BOOKS OF THE YEAR SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2025 BOOKER PRIZE INSTANT NATIONAL BESTSELLER “A tightly wound family drama that reads like a psychological thriller."—NPR “Bold, stark, genre-bending, Audition will haunt your dreams.”—The Boston Globe One woman, the performance of a lifetime. Or two. An exhilarating, destabilizing Möbius strip of a novel that asks whether we ever really know the people we love. Two people meet for lunch in a Manhattan restaurant. She’s an accomplished actress in rehearsals for an upcoming premiere. He’s attractive, troubling, young—young enough to be her son. Who is he to her, and who is she to him? In this compulsively readable, brilliantly constructed novel, two competing narratives unspool, rewriting our understanding of the roles we play every day – partner, parent, creator, muse – and the truths every performance masks, especially from those who think they know us most intimately. Taut and hypnotic, Audition is Katie Kitamura at her virtuosic best.
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**SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2025** A GUARDIAN, OBSERVER, FINANCIAL TIMES, BBC, TIME, VOGUE, MARIE CLAIRE, ESQUIRE and ROLLING STONE BOOK TO READ IN 2025 'Slick, sharp, strange and singular . . . You’ll gulp this novel down in one in-breath' SAMANTHA HARVEY, Booker Prize-winning author of Orbital 'A lightning bolt of a novel' FINANCIAL TIMES 'I’m not sure there’s anyone better writing in America today' ALEX PRESTON, Observer One woman, the performance of a lifetime. Or two. An exhilarating, destabilising novel that asks whether we ever really know the people we love Two people meet for lunch in a Manhattan restaurant. She’s an accomplished actress in rehearsals for an upcoming premiere. He’s attractive, troubling, young – young enough to be her son. Who is he to her, and who is she to him? In this compulsively readable, brilliantly constructed novel, two competing narratives unspool, rewriting our understanding of the roles we play every day – partner, parent, creator, muse – and the truths every performance masks, especially from those who think they know us most intimately. Taut and hypnotic, Audition is Katie Kitamura at her virtuosic best.

"This is one hell of a novel. It's absolutely outstanding. Once I entered this world I didn't want to leave." ― Roxane Gay In this taut family drama, the sins of a favorite son rock a small Mississippi town. In the town of Dominion, Mississippi, Reverend Sabre Winfrey is more than a preacher. From his pulpit at the Seven Seals Baptist Church to the airwaves of his local radio station, he exerts influence over every aspect of society. By his side is his wife Priscilla, who types up his sermons and raises their five sons, favouring the youngest, Wonderboy. Handsome and adored, Wonderboy is destined to carry on his father's legacy. But, after a violent altercation with a stranger, Wonderboy's actions send shockwaves through the community. Told through the perspectives of the women who love these two men, this Morrisonian, God-troubled novel illuminates the pervasive sins of the patriarchy, and the bargains women strike to survive them. A vivid and unforgettable story that exalts the beauty and strength of Black womanhood, Dominion is the incandescent debut from one of America's most exciting writers. A Must-read: People, NPR, Vulture, Literary Hub, The Millions, Goodreads A Publishers Weekly Writer to Watch

Short-listed for the Booker Prize Long-listed for the National Book Award “The first major American novel to be published this year.” —Sam Sacks, The Wall Street Journal “Gorgeous . . . Almost impossibly heartbreaking.” —Sam Worley, New York Magazine A Must-Read: The New York Times, New York Magazine, Time, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, Entertainment Weekly, USA Today, The Chicago Review of Books, Forbes, Literary Hub, and Town & Country “A major world writer . . . Choi is in thrilling command.” ―Dwight Garner, The New York Times “Devastating.” —Ron Charles, The Washington Post “Ranks among her best work.” —Hamilton Cain, Los Angeles Times A Dakota Johnson x TeaTime Book Club Pick A novel tracing a father’s disappearance across time, nations, and memory, from the author of Trust Exercise. One summer night, Louisa and her father take a walk on the breakwater. Her father is carrying a flashlight. He cannot swim. Later, Louisa is found on the beach, soaked to the skin, barely alive. Her father is gone. She is ten years old. Louisa is an only child of parents who have severed themselves from the past. Her father, Serk, is Korean, but was born and raised in Japan; he lost touch with his family when they bought into the promises of postwar Pyongyang and relocated to North Korea. Her American mother, Anne, is estranged from her Midwestern family after a reckless adventure in her youth. And then there is Tobias, Anne’s illegitimate son, whose reappearance in their lives will have astonishing consequences. But now it is just Anne and Louisa, Louisa and Anne, adrift and facing the challenges of ordinary life in the wake of great loss. United, separated, and also repelled by their mutual grief, they attempt to move on. But they cannot escape the echoes of that night. What really happened to Louisa’s father? Shifting perspectives across time and character and turning back again and again to that night by the sea, Flashlight chases the shock waves of one family’s catastrophe, even as they are swept up in the invisible currents of history. A monumental new novel from the National Book Award winner Susan Choi, Flashlight spans decades and continents in a spellbinding, heart-gripping investigation of family, loss, memory, and the ways in which we are shaped by what we cannot see.
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**SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2025** 'Ferociously smart and full of surprises' Eleanor Catton 'Instantly bewitching' Jennifer Egan 'A rich generational saga that teems with intelligence' Financial Times The astonishing story of one family swept up in the tides of the twentieth century, ranging from post-war Japan to suburban America and the North Korean regime One evening, ten-year-old Louisa and her father take a walk out on the breakwater. They are spending the summer in a coastal Japanese town while her father Serk, a Korean émigré, completes an academic secondment from his American university. When Louisa wakes hours later, she has washed up on the beach and her father is missing, probably drowned. The disappearance of Louisa’s father shatters their small family unit. As Louisa and her American mother Anne return to the US, this traumatic event reverberates across time and space, and the mystery of what really happened to Serk slowly unravels. 'Big, bold and surprising' Guardian ‘Engrossing... Choi is an astute, convincing writer’ Sunday Telegraph 'Susan Choi is a master of rendering relationships with utter particularity' Raven Leilani, author of Luster 'I couldn’t put it down, and once I finished, I couldn’t stop thinking about it' Barbara Demick, author of Nothing to Envy

Desiree, Danielle, January, Monique and Nakia are in their early twenties and at the beginning. Of their careers, of marriage, of motherhood and of big-city lives in New York and Los Angeles. Together, they are finding their way through the wilderness, that period of life when the reality of contemporary adulthood - overwhelming, mysterious and full of freedom and consequences - swoops in and stays. Desiree and Danielle, sisters whose shared history has done little to prevent their estrangement, nurse bitter family wounds in different ways. January's got a relationship with a 'good' man she feels ambivalent about, even after her surprise pregnancy. Monique, a librarian and aspiring blogger, finds unexpected online fame after calling out the university where she works for its plans to whitewash fraught history. And Nakia is trying to get her restaurant off the ground, without relying on the largesse of her upper middle-class family who wonder aloud if she should be doing something better with her life. As these friends move from the late 2000s into the late 2020s, from young adults to grown women, they must figure out what they mean to one another - amid political upheaval, economic and environmental instability and the increasing volatility of modern life. The Wilderness is Angela Flournoy's masterful and kaleidoscopic follow-up to her critically acclaimed debut The Turner House. A generational talent, she captures with disarming wit and electric language how the most profound connections over a lifetime can lie in the tangled, uncertain thicket of friendship.
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NATIONAL BESTSELLER FINALIST FOR THE KIRKUS PRIZE FOR FICTION LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FOR FICTION LONGLISTED FOR THE ASPEN WORDS LITERARY PRIZE Named one of the Washington Post's 10 Best Books of the Year One of Barack Obama's "Favorite Books of the Year" Named a Best of the Year by The New Yorker, The Boston Globe, Publishers Weekly, Vogue, Elle, Time, Kirkus Reviews, Electric Literature, Town & Country, Alta Journal, NPR, New York Public Library, Chicago Public Library, Book Riot, Audible "Flournoy has delivered a future classic--the kind of novel that generations to come will read to understand the nuances and peculiarities of this time." -- Harper's Bazaar An era-defining novel about five Black women over the course of their twenty-year friendship, as they move through the dizzying and sometimes precarious period between young adulthood and midlife--in the much-anticipated second book from National Book Award finalist Angela Flournoy. Desiree, January, Monique, and Nakia are in their early twenties and at the beginning. Of their careers, of marriage, of motherhood, and of big-city lives in New York and Los Angeles. Together, they are finding their way through the wilderness, that period of life when the reality of contemporary adulthood--overwhelming, mysterious, and full of freedom and consequences--swoops in and stays. Desiree is estranged from her sister Danielle, and the two nurse bitter family wounds in different ways. January's got a relationship with a "good" man she feels ambivalent about, even after her surprise pregnancy. Monique, a librarian and aspiring blogger, finds unexpected online fame after calling out the university where she works for its plans to whitewash fraught history. And Nakia is trying to get her restaurant off the ground, without relying on the largesse of her upper middle-class family who wonder aloud if she should be doing something better with her life. As these friends move from the late 2000's into the late 2020's, from young adults to grown women, they must figure out what they mean to one another--amid political upheaval, economic and environmental instability, and the increasing volatility of modern American life. The Wilderness is Angela Flournoy's masterful and kaleidoscopic follow-up to her critically acclaimed debut The Turner House. A generational talent, she captures with disarming wit and electric language how the most profound connections over a lifetime can lie in the tangled, uncertain thicket of friendship.
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* ONE OF BARACK OBAMA'S FAVOURITE BOOKS OF 2025 * ‘Humorous yet devastating... I loved this book' - BRIT BENNETT ‘Flournoy is singular' - RAVEN LEILANI 'Flournoy has a long-lens talent' - ELEANOR CATTON 'A triumphant whirlwind of a novel' - NAMWALI SERPELL 'One of the wisest, most talented authors working today' - JUSTIN TORRES In 2008, Desiree, January, Monique and Nakia are in their early twenties and at the beginning. Of their careers, of marriage, of motherhood and of big city lives in New York and Los Angeles. Together, they are finding their way through the wilderness, that period of life when the reality of contemporary adulthood – overwhelming, mysterious and full of freedom and consequences – swoops in and stays. Desiree is estranged from her sister Danielle, and the two nurse bitter family wounds in different ways. January's got a relationship with a 'good' man she feels ambivalent about, even after her surprise pregnancy. Monique, a librarian and aspiring blogger, finds unexpected online fame after calling out the university where she works for its plans to whitewash fraught history. And Nakia is trying to get her restaurant off the ground, without relying on the largesse of her upper middle-class family who wonder aloud if she should be doing something better with her life. As these friends transition from young adults to grown women, they must figure out what they mean to one another – amid political upheaval, economic and environmental instability and the increasing volatility of modern life. In The Wilderness, Angela Flournoy captures with disarming wit and electric language how life's most profound connections can lie in the tangled, uncertain thicket of friendship. It's The Vanishing Half meets The Most Fun We Ever Had, with notes of Girl, Woman, Other. 'A future classic' - HARPER'S BAZAAR 'Flournoy inhabits a quartet of shifting perspectives with wit, tenderness and exquisite grace... Evokes the hushed, disconsolate quality of [Toni] Morrison' - NEW YORK TIMES 'A fascinating look at lasting friendships... Vivid' - WASHINGTON POST 'A triumph' - LA TIMES 'Flournoy beautifully renders how love - though at times thorny and confusing - is the one thing that keeps us connected' - TIME (The 100 Must-Read Books of 2025) ***** 5-STAR READER REVIEWS FOR THE WILDERNESS ***** 'Every heartbreak, triumph and turn of the text I actually felt in my body' 'Wow, this book... So real and raw' 'If you believe in the power of sisterhood, this is an unforgettable must-read' 'Will make you laugh, ache and long for your own family and friends' 'Captures the complexities of lifelong friendships with remarkable depth' 'One of my best books of the year, hands down' This novel contains references to assisted dying and drug use, and depictions of violence, death, and police brutality.

“An exhilarating debut novel” (R.O. Kwon, The New York Times Book Review) about the daughter of Afghan refugees and her year of self-discovery—a portrait of the artist as a young woman set in a Berlin that can’t escape its history A girl can get in almost anywhere, even if she can’t get out. SHORTLISTED FOR THE WOMEN’S PRIZE FOR FICTION • LONGLISTED FOR THE CENTER FOR FICTION FIRST NOVEL PRIZE • A BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: Time, Elle, Electric Lit, The Skinny “A no-bullsh*t, must-read debut.”—Kaveh Akbar “Kaleidoscopic, full of style and soul.”—Raven Leilani “Aber writes with . . . masterful precision.”—Leila Lalami, The Atlantic "Once in a blue moon a debut novel comes along, announcing a voice quite unlike any other, with a layered story and sentences that crackle and pop, begging to be read aloud. Aria Aber’s splendid Good Girl introduces just such a voice . . . Aber, an award-winning poet, strikes gold here, much like Kaveh Akbar did in last year’s acclaimed Martyr!"—Los Angeles Times In Berlin’s artistic underground, where techno and drugs fill warehouses still pockmarked from the wars of the twentieth century, nineteen-year-old Nila at last finds her tribe. Born in Germany to Afghan parents, raised in public housing graffitied with swastikas, drawn to philosophy, photography, and sex, Nila has spent her adolescence disappointing her family while searching for her voice as a young woman and artist. Then in the haze of Berlin’s legendary nightlife, Nila meets Marlowe, an American writer whose fading literary celebrity opens her eyes to a life of personal and artistic freedom. But as Nila finds herself pulled further into Marlowe’s controlling orbit, ugly, barely submerged racial tensions begin to roil Germany—and Nila’s family and community. After a year of running from her future, Nila stops to ask herself the most important question: Who does she want to be? A story of love and family, raves and Kafka, staying up all night and surviving the mistakes of youth, Good Girl is the virtuosic debut novel by a celebrated young poet and, now, a major new voice in fiction.
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**Shortlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction 2025** A portrait of the artist as a young woman in a Berlin that can't escape its history: an electric debut novel about the daughter of Afghan refugees and her year of nightclubs, bad romance, and self-discovery 'Kaleidoscopic, full of style and soul' Raven Leilani 'A must-read ... Dark, breathtaking, profound, so fresh' Guardian 'A no-bullshit must-read debut' Kaveh Akbar 'Delicious, propulsive reading' Vogue In Berlin's underground, where techno rattles buildings still scarred with the violence of the last century, nineteen-year-old Nila finds her tribe. In their company she can escape the parallel city that made her, the public housing block packed with refugees and immigrants, where the bathrooms are infested with silverfish and the walls outside are graffitied with swastikas. Escaping into the clubs, Nila tries to outrun the shadow of her dead mother, once a feminist revolutionary; her catatonic, defeated father; and the cab-driver uncles who seem to idle on every corner. To anyone who asks, her family is Greek, not Afghani. And then Nila meets American writer Marlowe Woods, whose literary celebrity, though fading, opens her eyes to a world of patrons and festivals, one that imbues her dreams of life as an artist with new possibility. But as she finds herself drawn further into his orbit and ugly, barely submerged tensions begin to roil and claw beneath the city's cosmopolitan veneer, everything she hopes for, hates, and believes about herself will be challenged. 'Rarely has the wildness and bewilderment of youth been conveyed with such richly textured heat' Garth Greenwell
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**Shortlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction 2025** **A Time Book of the Year 2025** A portrait of the artist as a young woman in a Berlin that can't escape its history: an electric debut novel about the daughter of Afghan refugees and her year of nightclubs, bad romance, and self-discovery 'Kaleidoscopic, full of style and soul' Raven Leilani 'A must-read ... Dark, breathtaking, profound, so fresh' Guardian 'A no-bullshit must-read debut' Kaveh Akbar 'Delicious, propulsive reading' Vogue Born in Germany to Afghan parents, Nila has spent her adolescence disappointing her family while searching for her voice. Now in Berlin's techno-filled warehouses, their walls still scarred by the ravages of the last century, she has found her tribe. Then Nila meets American writer Marlowe. As she is sucked into his seductive but controlling orbit, and ugly racial tensions begin to roil through Germany, she is forced to ask herself the question she's been running from: who does she want to be? 'Rarely has the wildness and bewilderment of youth been conveyed with such richly textured heat' Garth Greenwell
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UN DEBUT PODEROSO, ENFURECIDO Y NECESARIO. «UN ÉXITO TOTAL» PUBLISHERS WEEKLY. NOMINADO AL WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2025 Con una conmovedora perspectiva sobre nuestros tiempos, Good Girl huele a resaca química y cemento mojado, como un domingo cualquiera en Berlín En el universo underground y artístico de Berlín, donde el techno y las drogas palpitan en antiguos almacenes atravesados por las guerras del siglo XX, Nila lucha por entender quién quiere ser. Nacida en Alemania de padres afganos, criada en viviendas públicas cubiertas de esvásticas y magnetizada por la filosofía, la fotografía y el sexo, Nila se mueve en una huida hacia adelante dando forma a un Bildungsroman intoxicado y poético. Aber construye un mundo implacable en un Berlín mugriento y desenreda historias y legados con una pluma hábil que respeta y admite la autodestrucción como herramienta efectiva de autodescubrimiento. La crítica ha dicho: «Un debut poderoso que sumerge al lector en una batalla feroz entre la identidad cultural de una joven afgana y su anhelo de libertad. [...] Profunda e innovadora, Good Girl es un libro imprescindible». The Guardian «Abrid Good Girl por cualquier página y os engullirá su belleza magnética y la forma en la que el deseo se abre paso a través de las grietas de la desesperación». Ron Charles, The Washington Post «Se parece de una manera inesperada y gratificante a varios clásicos del género - Los años de aprendizaje de Wilhelm Meister de Goethe o Jane Eyre de Charlotte Brontë-. [...] Poderosísima». Anahid Nersessian, The New Yorker «Un coming of age sorprendente. [...] Un éxito total». Publishers Weekly, reseña destacada «Deliciosa y apremiante. [...] La descripción del deseo -hacia los amantes, el arte y una vida diferente- es muy conmovedora». Vogue «El coming of age que debes leer y que vibra igual que los bajos de un bafle berlinés. No pierdan de vista a Aria Aber». Glamour «Asombroso, cautivador y convincente: [...] una revelación». Harper's Bazaar «Una lectura vertiginosa [en la que] cada frase brilla con luz propia y cuya textura visceral confirma que detrás de Good Girl tenemos a una auténtica poeta». Los Angeles Review of Books «A caballo entre Una educación y En el camino, Aber nos ofrece una novela cautivadora escrita con herencia oscura y aplomo poético». The Irish Times «Una odisea por el mundo underground de la cultura de club berlinesa con todo lo salvaje de la juventud, los excesos y el autodescubrimiento». Service95 (plataforma de estilo de vida de Dua Lipa) «Un debut maravilloso, me ha encantado. [...] Felicidades por este precioso logro, Aria Aber». Sarah Jessica Parker «Luminosa. Una historia muy tierna sobre la identidad y el autodescubrimiento». Elle, "Los libros de culto que no podemos esperar a leer en 2025" «Un debut impresionante que nos ofrece un vívido retrato de una vida plagada de inestabilidad y claustrofobia, [ ] Aber construye un mundo duro e implacable en un Berlín mugriento y desenreda historias y legados -de gente, lugares y política- con una pluma hábil». Financial Times

The Grand Paloma Resort is a lush paradise in the Dominican Republic where the guests enjoy incredible luxury, and the staff is always eager to please—that is, until they are pushed to the brink. Laura is a local Dominican woman who, through sheer hard work, has risen through the ranks to become manager at the Grand Paloma Resort. Her idea to pair a “platinum” guest with their own resort employee to attend to their every whim has been wildly successful, and she’s just weeks away from a promotion that could blaze a path for her off the resort and toward a life of opportunity. If only her younger sister, Elena—who she’s looked after since the death of their mother—could get with the program. Elena has tried to live up to her sister’s expectations, but to escape the drudgery of waiting on rich tourists, she’s become increasingly dependent on pills and partying. As a babysitter at the resort, she’s at the beck and call of guests who are indulging their worst impulses and need someone else to watch their kids while they do so. Now, after an accident, a child left in her charge is believed dead, and Elena knows she'll be held responsible. When Elena runs into the child’s father at a nearby beachfront watering hole, he offers her an obscene amount of money for private time with two young local girls. Elena pockets the cash to fund her escape and prays she’s gotten the girls out of harm’s way. But then the girls are reported missing. Set over the course of seven days, The Grand Paloma Resort offers an unforgettable story of class, family, and community, building to an intense climax in which the true costs of luxury are laid bare, redeemed only by true acts of love.
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El Grand Paloma Resort es un paraíso exuberante en la República Dominicana donde los huéspedes disfrutan de increíbles lujos y el personal siempre está dispuesto a complacer, pero solo hasta que los llevan al límite. Laura es gerente del Grand Paloma Resort. Es una mujer dominicana que ha llegado a donde está gracias a su esfuerzo. Está a pocas semanas de recibir un ascenso que le abrirá un camino hacia nuevas oportunidades. Pero su hermana menor, Elena, a quien ha cuidado desde la muerte de su madre, no parece cooperar. Elena ha hecho todo lo posible por estar a la altura de las expectativas de su hermana. Sin embargo, para escapar de la monotonía de atender a turistas ricos, se ha vuelto dependiente de las pastillas y las fiestas. Como niñera en el resort, está a merced de los huéspedes que le dan rienda suelta a sus peores impulsos y necesitan que alguien cuide a sus hijos mientras tanto. Después de un accidente, se cree que una niña a su cargo ha muerto, y Elena sabe que la harán responsable. En un bar frente a la playa, Elena se encuentra con el padre de la niña, quien le ofrece una obscena suma de dinero para poder estar a solas con dos niñas locales. Elena guarda el dinero para financiar su escape y, aunque reza para que nada les pase, las niñas desaparecen. Ambientada a lo largo de siete días, Grand Paloma Resort nos ofrece una historia inolvidable de clase, familia y comunidad, creando un intenso clímax en el que se revelan los verdaderos costos del lujo, y se exponen secretos largamente callados y verdaderos actos de amor.

A TODAY SHOW SPRING PICK "Sweet, sexy, sad, articulate, and funny." - Vogue "As much heart, humor, and gritty realness as can fit between two covers." - People "A funny and heartfelt tale of one woman grappling with grief, love and how to move forward.” - New York Times From the New York Times bestselling author of Mostly Dead Things, a sparkling and funny new novel of entertainment, ambition, art, and love. Cherry Hendricks might be down on her luck, but she can write the book on what makes something funny: she’s a professional clown who creates raucous, zany fun at gigs all over Orlando. Between her clowning and her shifts at an aquarium store for extra cash, she’s always hustling. Not to mention balancing her judgmental mother, her messy love life, and her equally messy community of fellow performers. Things start looking up when Cherry meets Margot the Magnificent—a much older lesbian magician—who seems to have worked out the lines between art, business, and life, and has a slick, successful career to prove it. With Margot’s mentorship and industry connections, Cherry is sure to take her art to the next level. Plus, Margot is sexy as hell. It’s not long before Cherry must decide how much she’s willing to risk for Margot and for her own explosive new act—and what kind of clown she wants to be under her suit. Equal parts bravado, tenderness, and humor, and bursting with misfits, magicians, musicians, and mimes, Stop Me If You've Heard This One is a masterpiece of comedic fiction that asks big questions about art and performance, friendship and community, and the importance of timing in jokes and in life.

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER “Lily King has written another masterpiece. This book overflows with her brilliance and her heart. We are so lucky.” —Emma Straub, New York Times bestselling author of This Time Tomorrow From the New York Times bestselling author of Writers & Lovers comes a magnificent and intimate new novel of desire, friendship, and the lasting impact of first love You knew I’d write a book about you someday. Our narrator understands good love stories—their secrets and subtext, their highs and free falls. But her greatest love story, the one she lived, never followed the simple rules. In the fall of her senior year of college, she meets two star students from her 17th-Century Lit class: Sam and Yash. Best friends living off campus in the elegant house of a professor on sabbatical, the boys invite her into their intoxicating world of academic fervor, rapid-fire banter and raucous card games. They nickname her Jordan, and she quickly discovers the pleasures of friendship, love and her own intellectual ambition. But youthful passion is unpredictable, and soon she finds herself at the center of a charged and intricate triangle. As graduation comes and goes, choices made will alter these three lives forever. Decades later, the vulnerable days of Jordan's youth seem comfortably behind her. But when a surprise visit and unexpected news bring the past crashing into the present, she returns to a world she left behind and must confront the decisions and deceptions of her younger self. Written with the superb wit and emotional sensitivity fans and critics of Lily King have come to adore, Heart the Lover is a deeply moving love story that celebrates literature, forgiveness, and the transformative bonds that shape our lives. Wise, unforgettable, and with a delightful connective thread to Writers & Lovers, this is King at her very best, affirming her as a masterful chronicler of the human experience and one of the finest novelists at work today.
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"Lily King is one of our great literary treasures."--Madeline Miller From the New York Times bestselling author of Writers & Lovers comes an intimate and sweeping new novel of love and friendship--a journey into the heart of youth and middle age, desire and loss, and the intricate bonds that shape our lives Our bright narrator is a college senior quietly dreaming of becoming a writer when she meets Sam and Yash, best friends and the golden boys of the English Department. Top-of-the-class Honors students, they live at the stately home of a favorite professor on sabbatical and can banter about Joyce and Fitzgerald like a game of rapid-fire tennis. The two nickname her Jordan and invite her into their magnetic world where her college experience is forever altered. As graduation approaches, the lines between love and friendship blur, and Jordan finds herself caught in a life-changing triangle. Decades later, her writing career is thriving, but motherhood is full of challenges. When she receives unexpected news that brings the past crashing into the present, Jordan returns to a world she thought she left behind. Written with the superb wit and emotional sensitivity fans and critics have come to adore, King explores a tangled lattice of friendship, love, family and uncertainty that celebrates how we love, who we love, and all the complexity a single heart can hold.

Pachinko meets Past Lives in this transporting and heartrending novel about first loves, new beginnings and second chances, set between Shanghai, Taiwan, Hong Kong and LA and spanning almost seventy years[Bokinfo].
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'A layered, beautifully written, and deeply moving novel' Abi Daré '[Homeseeking] weaves expertly between present and past, telling the story of childhood sweethearts who meet again late in life and are torn between looking back and moving on' Celeste Ng 'Kaleidoscopic and affecting' Guardian 'Unforgettable' Washington Post There are moments when a single choice can define an entire life. Haiwen and Suchi are teenage sweethearts in 1940s Shanghai; their childhood friendship has blossomed into young love, and they believe that they are soulmates. But when Haiwen secretly decides to enlist in the army to keep his brother from the draft, their shared future is shattered. Their paths take them far afield from each other, with the exception of one pivotal chance encounter on the Hong Kong ferry in 1966. Sixty years later, Haiwen, now in his late seventies, is bagging bananas at a 99 Ranch in Los Angeles when he lifts his head to once more see Suchi. As they begin to rekindle their friendship, it feels like they might have a second chance to live the life they were supposed to have together. But the weight of the past lives with them at every moment, and only time will tell if they are able to forge something new. Told in alternating narratives, Homeseeking spans seven decades, through the most tumultuous period of modern Chinese history up to contemporary times, tracing the separated lovers as they migrate from Shanghai to Hong Kong, Taiwan, and America.

From the Booker Prize finalist and bestselling author: a perceptive novel about a gay Black painter navigating the worlds of art, desire, and creativity A newcomer to New York, Wyeth is a Black painter who grew up in the South and is trying to find his place in the contemporary Manhattan art scene. It's challenging. Gallery shows displaying bad art. Pretentious artists jockeying for attention. The gossip and the backstabbing. While his part-time work for an art restorer is engaging, Wyeth suffers from artist's block with his painting and he is finding it increasingly difficult to spark his creativity. When he meets Keating, a white former seminarian who left the priesthood, Wyeth begins to reconsider how to observe the world, in the process facing questions about the conflicts between Black and white art, the white gaze on the Black body, and the compromises we make - in art and in life. As he did so adeptly in Booker finalist Real Life and the bestselling The Late Americans, Brandon Taylor brings to life in Minor Black Figures a fascinating set of characters, this time in the competitive art world, and the lives they lead with each and on their own. Minor Black Figures is an involving and tender portrait of friendship, creativity, and the connections between them.
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A bold novel about a black painter caught up in the currents of art, faith, and desire. New York simmers with heat and unrest as Wyeth, a painter, finds himself at an impasse in his own work. After attending a dubious show put on by a collective of careerist artists, he retreats to a bar in the West Village where he meets Keating, a former seminarian. Over the long summer, as the two get to know each another, they talk and argue about God, sex, and art. Meanwhile, at his job working for an art restorer, Wyeth begins to investigate the life and career of a forgotten, minor black artist. His search yields potential answers to questions that Wyeth is only now beginning to ask about what it means to be a black artist making black art amid the mess and beauty of life itself. As he did so brilliantly in the Booker Prize finalist Real Life and the bestselling The Late Americans, Brandon Taylor brings alive a captivating set of characters, this time at work and at play in the competitive art world. Minor Black Figures is a vividly etched portrait, both sweeping and tender, of friendship, creativity, belief, and the deep connections among them.

"There, There meets The Night Watchman in this gripping literary debut about power and corruption, family, and facing the ghosts of the past. Mitch Caddo, a young law school graduate and aspiring political fixer, is an outsider in the homeland of his Anishinaabe ancestors. But alongside his childhood friend, Tribal President Mack Beck, he runs the government of the Passage Rouge Nation, and with it, the tribe's Golden Eagle Casino and Hotel. On the eve of Mack's reelection, their tenuous grip on power is threatened by a nationally known activist and politician, Gloria Hawkins, and her young aide, Layla Beck, none other than Mack's estranged sister and Mitch's former love. In their struggle for control over Passage Rouge, the campaigns resort to bare-knuckle political gamesmanship, testing the limits of how far they will go-and what they will sacrifice-to win it all. But when an accident claims the life of Mitch's mentor, a power broker in the reservation's political scene, the election slides into chaos and pits Mitch against the only family he has. As relationships strain to their breaking points and a peaceful protest threatens to become an all-consuming riot, Mitch and Layla must work together to stop the reservation's descent into violence. Thrilling and timely, Big Chief is an unforgettable story about the search for belonging-to an ancestral and spiritual home, to a family, and to a sovereign people at a moment of great historical importance"--
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Traduit de l’américain par Johanne Le Ray Peu de temps après son retour dans la réserve Passage Rouge dont il est originaire, Mitch et son ami d’enfance, Mack, tentent leur chance et emportent la présidence du conseil tribal pour Mack. Mais alors que les nouvelles élections approchent, leur autorité est menacée par la candidature d’une activiste et politicienne expérimentée. Leur situation est d’autant plus compliquée que sa campagne est soutenue par Joe Beck, père adoptif de Mack et mentor de Mitch, et sa fille Layla, amour de jeunesse de Mitch. À une semaine du vote, les liens se tendent et la lutte pour le pouvoir entraîne une spirale de trahison, de mensonges et de violence. Au cœur de cette tempête, Mitch va devoir décider de l’orientation qu’il veut donner à sa vie et de son implication pour une tribu qui ne l’a jamais vraiment considéré comme l’un des siens. Big Chief est l’histoire d’une quête : celle d’un individu sans racines et celle d’un peuple en manque de souveraineté. Nommé “livre le plus attendu de 2025” par le Washington Post et Los Angeles Times.
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Named a Most Anticipated Book of 2025 by The Washington Post, Debutiful, San Francisco Chronicle, Los Angeles Times, and LitHub Publishers Weekly Writer to Watch for Spring 2025 There, There meets The Night Watchman in this gripping literary debut about power and corruption, family, and facing the ghosts of the past. Mitch Caddo, a young law school graduate and aspiring political fixer, is an outsider in the homeland of his Anishinaabe ancestors. But alongside his childhood friend, Tribal President Mack Beck, he runs the government of the Passage Rouge Nation, and with it, the tribe’s Golden Eagle Casino and Hotel. On the eve of Mack’s reelection, their tenuous grip on power is threatened by a nationally known activist and politician, Gloria Hawkins, and her young aide, Layla Beck, none other than Mack’s estranged sister and Mitch’s former love. In their struggle for control over Passage Rouge, the campaigns resort to bare-knuckle political gamesmanship, testing the limits of how far they will go—and what they will sacrifice—to win it all. But when an accident claims the life of Mitch’s mentor, a power broker in the reservation’s political scene, the election slides into chaos and pits Mitch against the only family he has. As relationships strain to their breaking points and a peaceful protest threatens to become an all-consuming riot, Mitch and Layla must work together to stop the reservation’s descent into violence. Thrilling and timely, Big Chief is an unforgettable story about the search for belonging—to an ancestral and spiritual home, to a family, and to a sovereign people at a moment of great historical importance.

Winner of the Westport Prize for Literature Finalist for New American Voices Award and Pacific Northwest Book Award Best Book of the Year at TIME, Apple, Debutiful, Electric Literature, and Goodreads Best Book of the Month at Oprah Daily, Apple Books, Alta Journal, Ms. Magazine, Book Riot, The Roots, Write or Die, and Southern Review of Books Set between Nigeria and New Orleans, The Edge of Water tells the story of a young woman who dreams of life in America, as the collision of traditional prophecy and individual longing tests the bonds of a family during a devastating storm. In Ibadan, Nigeria, a mother receives a divination that foretells danger for her daughter in America. In spite of this warning, she allows her to forge her own path, and Amina arrives in New Orleans filled with hope. But just as Amina begins to find her way, a hurricane threatens to destroy the city, upending everything she’d dreamed of and the lives of all she holds dear. Years later, her daughter is left with questions about the mother she barely knew, and the family she has yet to discover in Nigeria. Exploring the love of a determined mother and dreaming daughter who do not say enough to each other until it is too late, the detangling of Yoruba Christianity, traditional religion, and folklore, and the tellings of three generations of daring women—through times of longing, promise, and romance, as well as heartbreak—Olufunke Grace Bankole’s The Edge of Water is a luminous debut novel about a young woman brave enough to leave all she knows behind, and the way her fate transforms a family destined to stay together.

Junot Diaz’s critically acclaimed collection Drown meets Janet Mock’s Emmy-winning series Pose, “in this remarkable debut…capturing the heartbreak of queer youth, a woman’s rebellion against the confines of motherhood, and, above all, the pain and power of friendship” (Adam Haslett, bestselling author of Imagine Me Gone). It’s 1999, and best friends Sal and Charo are striving to hold on to their dreams in a New York determined to grind them down. Sal is a book-loving science nerd trying to grow beyond his dead-end job in a new city, but he’s held back by tragic memories from his past in Santo Domingo. Free-spirited Charo is surprised to find herself a mother at twenty-five, partnered with a controlling man, working at the same supermarket for years, her world shrunk to the very domesticity she thought she’d escaped in her old country. When Sal finds love at a gay club one night, both his and Charo’s worlds unexpectedly open up to a vibrant social circle that pushes them to reckon with what they owe to their own selves, pasts, futures, and, always, each other. Loca follows one daring year in the lives of young people living at the edge of their own patience and desires. With expansive grace, it reveals both the grueling conditions that force people to migrate and the possibility of friendship as home when family, nations, and identity groups fall short.
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Longlisted for the Center of Fiction First Novel Prize 2025 It's 1999, and best friends Sal and Charo are striving to hold on to their dreams in a New York determined to grind them down. Sal is a book-loving science nerd trying to grow beyond his dead-end job in a new city, but he's held back by tragic memories from his past in Santo Domingo. Free-spirited Charo is surprised to find herself a mother at twenty-five, partnered with a controlling man, working at the same supermarket for years, her world shrunk to the very domesticity she thought she'd escaped in her old country. When Sal finds love at a gay club one night, both his and Charo's worlds unexpectedly open up to a vibrant social circle that pushes them to reckon with what they owe to their own selves, pasts, futures, and, always, each other.

A multigenre debut novel tracing one woman’s quest for faith across the American West during the Space Age In 1967, on the night of the first Apollo mission, a child named Izzy is orphaned when the doomsday cult she was born into clashes with the sheriff in the high desert of New Mexico. She’s taken in by a struggling rancher who is trying to keep his mind from falling apart as NASA rocket tests encroach on his outer range. Inspired by the true story of a UFO cult in a village near White Sands, this novel traces Izzy Gently’s whole life: from tragedy on the ranch, through addiction and a rich cast of eccentrics in Texas, to New Orleans, where Izzy is haunted by her past even as she uses lessons from childhood to counsel people who have lost the ability to see the moon. In The High Heaven, Joshua Wheeler explores American piety as it mutates over the course of the Space Age, as technology changes notions of both humanity and the heavens. Shot through with the speculative while paying homage to three iconic genres—neo-Western, picaresque, and Southern gothic—Izzy’s life story becomes a mirror for the warping of manifest destiny and, ultimately, a testament to the human will to seek meaning from the universe. Suffused with the absurdist history of American space travel and the wide-open landscapes of the Southwest, The High Heaven chronicles a larger-than-life adventure of one extraordinary woman who, despite tragedy, never loses sight of redemption.

"Ma’s brilliantly inventive These Memories Do Not Belong to Us weaves worlds around a central question: What happens when technology enables a totalitarian government to break into the last private frontiers of the internal mind? Chilling, poignant, and uncomfortably timely, Ma’s braided memory dispatches explore a future in which the shifting concepts of safety, loyalty, and truth lead nowhere except condemnation." — Tessa Hulls, author of Pulitzer Prize-winner Feeding Ghosts For fans of Cloud Atlas and The Power, a hauntingly beautiful and prescient debut set in a future where a renamed China is the sole global superpower. When I was a boy, my mother used to tell me stories of a world before memories could be shared between strangers… In a far-off future ruled by the Qin Empire, every citizen is fitted with a Mindbank, an intracranial device capable of recording and transmitting memories between minds. This technology gives birth to Memory Capitalism, where anyone with means can relive the life experiences of others. It also unleashes opportunities for manipulation: memories can be edited, marketed, and even corrupted for personal gain. After the sudden passing of his mother, an unnamed narrator inherits a collection of banned memories from her Mindbank so dangerous that even possessing them places his freedom in jeopardy. Traversing genres, empires, and millennia, they are tales of sumo wrestlers and social activists and armless swimmers and watchmakers, struggling amid the backdrop of Qin’s ascent toward global dominance. Determined to release his mother's memories to the world before they are destroyed forever, the narrator will risk everything—even if the cost is his own life. Powerful and provocative, These Memories Do Not Belong to Us masterfully explores how governments and media manipulate history to control the collective imagination. It forces us to see beyond the sheen of convenient truths and to unearth real stories of sacrifice and love that refuse to be eradicated.
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For fans of American War and Cloud Atlas, a hauntingly beautiful and prescient debut novel set in a future where a renamed China is the sole global superpower and citizens can record and transfer memories between minds. When I was a boy, my mother used to tell me stories of a world before memories could be shared between strangers . . . In a far-off future ruled by the Qin Empire, every citizen is fitted with a Mindbank, an intracranial device capable of recording and transmitting memories between minds. This technology gives birth to Memory Capitalism, where anyone with means can relive the life experiences of others. It also unleashes opportunities for manipulation: memories can be edited, marketed, and even corrupted for personal gain. After the sudden passing of his mother, an unnamed narrator inherits a collection of banned memories from her Mindbank so dangerous that even possessing them places his freedom in jeopardy. Traversing genres, empires, and millennia, these memories once belonged to sumo wrestlers and social activists, armless swimmers and watchmakers, all struggling to survive amid the backdrop of Qin’s ascent toward global dominance. Determined to release his mother's memories to the world before they are destroyed forever, the narrator will risk everything—even if the cost is his own life. Powerful and provocative, These Memories Do Not Belong to Us masterfully explores how governments and media manipulate history to control the collective imagination. It inspires us to see beyond the sheen of convenient truths, revealing stories of sacrifice and love that refuse to be eradicated.

“Middle Spoon subverts the ordinary novel with intelligence and vulnerability. . . . Varela has made a sly, analytical opera of the heart.” —Andrew Sean Greer, author of Less and Less Is Lost “A rollicking delight! . . . Varela asks provocative questions about the shape of family and the nature of love.” —Ada Calhoun, New York Times bestselling author of Crush One of TODAY’s 50 Books We Can’t Wait to Read in 2025 · Named a Must-Read Book of Fall 2025 by Town & Country, Lit Hub, and W Magazine A whipsmart, blazingly funny novel about heartbreak, unconventional love, and the way society could be, from National Book Award finalist Alejandro Varela The narrator of Middle Spoon appears to be living the dream: He has a doting husband, two precocious children, all the comforts of a quiet bourgeois life—and a sexy younger boyfriend to accompany him to farmers markets and cocktail parties. But when his boyfriend abruptly dumps him, he spirals into heartbreak for the first time and must confront a world still struggling to understand polyamorous relationships. Faced with the judgment of friends and the sting of rejection, he’s left to wonder if sharing a life with both his family and his lover could ever truly be possible. With a big heart and just the right dose of the anxieties that define the modern era, Middle Spoon skewers the unspoken rules we still live by—from taboos around intimacy to the shortcomings of Oscar season, pop culture, and gluten-free food—offering a surprising perspective on love, loss, and reinvention. Equal parts heart-wrenching and uproariously funny, Middle Spoon is for anyone who has longed, nursed a broken heart, or grappled with love at its messiest.

This prize-winning debut novel offers a compelling, insightful portrait of modern Japan through a group of architects competing to design a major new building in Tokyo. Tōru Sakanishi is a recent university graduate who joins the prestigious Murai Office, a small architecture firm founded by Shunsuke Murai, former student of Frank Lloyd Wright. A sensitive and observant narrator, Sakanishi is captivated by the artistic quality and careful consideration the Murai Office shows to each of its designs. As the sweltering summer months approach, the Murai Office migrates from Tokyo to Kita-Asama, a mountain village and artists’ colony whose heyday has passed. There, this small team of architects, including two women who Sakanishi is clumsily attracted to, set out to design the National Library of Modern Literature, competing against a rival firm that snaps up one government project after the next. Beautifully translated by National Book Award–winner Margaret Mitsutani, The Summer House is a character-driven story with prose that highlights the natural beauty of Japan, the ingenuity of architecture, and the clashing of modernity and tradition.

From the acclaimed author of Groundskeeping comes a searing family drama set in Kentucky where the homecoming of two half-brothers—successful Joel with his restless wife Alice, and struggling Emmett—ignites a clash of ambitions and desires, exposing raw truths about class, privilege, and happiness in the American South. Fulfillment tells the story of two half brothers—Joel, a successful academic and author, whose marriage is in deep trouble, and his younger sibling, Emmett, paralyzed by indecision and working in a shipping warehouse—who find themselves at their family home in Kentucky and upend each other’s lives in devastating ways. Between them is Alice, Joel's wife, a wry, passionate young woman whose dream of a small farm feels unattainable, and whose longing for a more authentic life collides with Emmett's hunger for connection and desire to escape a sense of burgeoning failure. As the chemistry between them escalates, the family is plunged into a violent crucible, each character brought to the precipice of immutable catastrophe. Incisive, poignant, gorgeously crafted, Lee Cole's haunting novel about class, privilege, brotherhood, and the American South asks whether people can change, and at what cost, and what it takes to build a life of fulfillment and meaning.

A coven of trans witches battles an evil AI in the magical coming-of-middle-age romp about love, loss, drag shows, and late capitalism. ​ On a morning much like any other, 30-something queer Brooklynite Wilder makes a miraculous discovery: suddenly, as if by magic, they can understand every language in the world. Dazed and disconnected, Wilder is found and taken in by a small coven of trans witches who have all become Awakened with mystical powers of their own. Quibble, a handsome portal traveler, Artemis, the group’s caretaker and seer, and Mary Margaret, a smart-ass teen with telekinetic powers all work to make the cagey and suspicious Wilder feel at home, both within their group and with the knowledge that magic is, in fact, real. Just as Wilder is finding their footing, a malicious AI threatens to dismantle the delicate balance of the coven and the world as they know it. The group scrambles to stay united as they question whether any consciousness—be it artificial, material, or magical—is too dangerous to exist. Awakened is a hilarious, thought-provoking reflection on the ways that we are responsible for creating our own realities, a story of finding community, and a meditation on what it means to have a body.

“[A] bizarre and endearing debut . . . We can’t remember the last time we met a character this singular or read a book this funny.”—Oprah Daily (Best New Books to Read This Spring) “Sleek and darkly comical . . . with the melancholic wit and whimsy of Miranda July.”—The Boston Globe Cross the jet bridge with Linda, a frequent flyer with an unusual obsession, in this “audaciously imagined and surprisingly tender” (Rachel Yoder, author of Nightbitch) debut novel by the acclaimed author of Out There. A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: Time, Oprah Daily, Vulture, Publishers Weekly, Electric Lit, Debutiful, Book Riot, The Skinny • LONGLISTED FOR THE CENTER FOR FICTION FIRST NOVEL PRIZE Linda is doing her best to lead a life that would appear normal to the casual observer. Weekdays, she earns $20 an hour moderating comments for a video-sharing platform, then rides the bus home to the windowless garage she rents on the outskirts of San Francisco. But on the last Friday of each month, she indulges her true passion, taking BART to SFO for a round-trip flight to a regional hub. The destination is irrelevant, because each trip means a new date with a handsome stranger—a stranger whose intelligent windscreens, sleek fuselages, and powerful engines make Linda feel a way that no human ever could. . . . Linda knows that she can’t tell anyone she’s sexually obsessed with planes. Nor can she reveal her belief that it’s her destiny to “marry” one of her suitors, uniting with her soulmate plane for eternity. But when an opportunity arises to hasten her dream of eternal partnership, and the carefully balanced elements of her life begin to spin out of control, she must choose between maintaining the trappings of normalcy and launching herself headlong toward the love she’s always dreamed of. Both subversive and unexpectedly heartwarming, Sky Daddy hijacks the classic love story, exploring desire, fate, and the longing to be accepted for who we truly are.
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'Audaciously imagined. Slyly executed. Surprisingly tender. Deliciously weird' RACHEL YODER, author of NIGHTBITCH 'Get your boarding pass out and get ready for some turbulence. Sky Daddy is insane' GARY SHTEYNGART, author of OUR COUNTRY FRIENDS 'This book is a dog whistle for the true freaks - never have I felt so seen! I loved it' RITA BULLWINKEL, author of the Booker Prize-longlisted HEADSHOT 'Hilarious, refreshing, and perverse . . . Do not miss this flight' HENRY HOKE, author of OPEN THROAT Linda makes $20 an hour as a content moderator, flagging comments that violate a tech conglomerate's terms and conditions. Each night, she returns to the windowless room in a garage that she rents from a family who pretend she isn't there. But once a month, she escapes to San Francisco International Airport for a clandestine meeting on the cheapest flight out that night. Linda's secret is that she's sexually attracted to planes: their intelligent windscreens, sleek fuselages and powerful engines make her feel a way that no human lover ever could. Linda believes her destiny is to someday 'marry' one of her suitors by dying in a plane crash, a catastrophic event that would unite her with her soulmate plane for eternity. So when her co-worker Karina invites her to join a group of women using vision boards to manifest their desires, she can't resist the chance to hasten her romantic fate. However, as the vision boards seem to manifest items more quickly - and more literally - than Linda had expected, the carefully balanced elements of her life begin to spin out of her control, and she must choose between maintaining the trappings of normalcy or launching herself headlong towards her greatest dream.

When Jada Williams is relentlessly pursued by the Debt Police, she is left with no choice but to take down her student loan company with the help of two mall coworkers—from the author of the “lethally witty” (The New York Times Book Review) The Survivalists. Jada Williams is good at judging people by their looks. From across the mall, she can tell not only someone’s inseam and pants size, but exactly what style they need to transform their life. Too bad she’s no longer using this superpower as a wardrobe designer to Hollywood stars, but for minimum wage plus commission at the Glendale mall. When Jada is fired yet again, she is forced to outrun the newly instated Debt Police who are out for blood. But Jada, like any great antihero, is not going to wait for the cops to come kick her around. With the help of two other debt-burdened mall coworkers, she hatches a plan for revenge. Together the three women plan a heist to erase their student loans forever and get back at the system that promised them everything and then tried to take it back. “A novel of great fun and unforgettable fury” (Megha Majumdar, bestselling author of A Burning) The Payback is a razor-sharp and hilarious dissection of race, power, and the daily grind, from one of the most original and exciting writers at work today.