40 more of the best new books in 2025

July

Strange Houses by Uketsu, translated by Jim Rion 

From enigmatic Japanese YouTube sensation Uketsu, author of the bestselling Strange Pictures, comes another irresistible mystery, where you are the detective. A mysterious windowless room on a house's floorplan hints at a hideous secret. A young girl suspects that her cousin's seemingly accidental death was the result of a sinister family tradition. Can you uncover the dark secret of these strange houses?

Necessary Fiction by Eloghosa Osunde

An audacious and eye-opening exploration of cross-generational queer life in contemporary Nigeria, from Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize-nominated Eloghosa Osunde. Across Lagos, Osunde's characters seek out love for self and their chosen partners, even as they risk ruining relationships with parents, spouses, family and friends.

They grapple with desire, fear, time, death, and God, forming and breaking unexpected connections; in the process unveiling how they know each other, have loved each other and had their hearts broken in that pursuit.

The Fathers by John Niven

In a busy maternity ward, first-time father Dan meets Jada. Dan and Jada come from very different places: both called Glasgow. Dan is a successful TV writer with a townhouse in the West End and a shiny Tesla ready to drive his wife and baby home. Jada is a hustling, small-time criminal who is already planning how to separate Dan from some of the luxuries Jada has never been able to enjoy in his tiny flat in a Brutalist sixties council block.

When a tragedy occurs, their worlds are brought closer than either could ever have imagined – close enough that it could mean destruction for both of them…

This is the hilarious and yet tender new novel from the bestselling author of Kill Your Friends.

The Society of Unknowable Objects by Gareth Brown

The world of unknowable objects – magical items that most people have no idea possess powers – has been quiet for decades . . .

But three current members of a secret society have remained watchful, meeting every six months in the basement of a bookshop in London.  When Frank Simpson, the longest-standing member, hears of a new artefact coming to light in Hong Kong, he sends the society's newest member, author Magda Sparks, to investigate.

Magic has always been too powerful to reveal to the world. But Magda will learn there might be something even more powerful: the truth.

Earlier this year, we gave 100 lucky booklovers the chance to read this magical novel before it was available in bookshops. You can still read the first chapter here!

August

Katabasis by R.F. Kuang

From the mega-bestselling author of Yellowface, British Book Awards' 2024 Book of the Year and winner of the 2024 Indie Book Awards, comes an epic and irresistibly dark new page-turner.

Katabasis. The story of a hero's descent to the underworld. Grad student Alice Law has only ever had one goal: to become the brightest mind in the field of analytic magick. But the only person who can make her dream come true is dead and – inconveniently – in Hell. And Alice, along with her biggest rival Peter Murdoch, is going after him.

But Hell is not as the philosophers claim, its rules are upside-down, and if she's going to get out of there alive, she and Peter will have to work together. Will they triumph, or kill each other trying?

Rooms for Vanishing by Stuart Nadler

A heart-stopping family epic of grief and hope, and one family blown apart – across the globe, across time, across parallel possibilities – by war.

For the Alterman family, Fania and Arnold, and their children Sonja and Moses, the universe has been fractured. Moving between Vienna and Prague, London and Montreal, New York and Miami, traversing four alternate realities of the history of one family, Rooms for Vanishing is a spellbinding exploration of what might happen when grief and hope collide – if you loved All the Light We Cannot See and Life After Life, this could be your perfect summer read.

The Healing Hippo Of Hinode Park by Michiko Aoyama, translated by Takami Nieda

Nestling at the bottom of a five-storey apartment block in the community of Advance Hill is the children's playground, Hinode Park, where you will find a very special hippo ride. According to urban legend, if you touch it with the area of your body that needs comfort, you will see swift signs of recovery.

From a high school student to an eighty-year-old cleaning lady, five overlapping lives seek comfort from the healing hippo in this enchanting and deeply moving celebration of kindness, community and understanding. From the from the bestselling author of What You Are Looking For Is in the Library.

September

Cursed Daughters by Oyinkan Braithwaite

The bestselling author of My Sister, the Serial Killer returns with a delectably dark new adventure.

No man will call your house his home. And if they try, they will not have peace...

So goes the family curse, long handed down from generation to generation, ruining families and breaking hearts. And now it's Eniiyi's turn – who, due to her uncanny resemblance to her dead aunt, Monife, is already used to her family's strange beliefs, as well as their insistence that she is a reincarnation. Is she destined to live out the habitual story of love and heartbreak, or can she escape the family curse and the mysterious fate that befell her aunt?

Hekate by Nikita Gill

An electrifying retelling of the life of Greek goddess Hekate by bestselling poet Nikita Gill.

Born into a world on fire, Godling Hekate has never known safety. After her parents are on the losing side of the war between the ruling Titans and new Olympian Gods, Hekate is taken by her mother Asteria to the Underworld, where Styx and Hades agree to raise her.

When immortal war breaks out again, threatening to destroy everything from Mount Olympus to the Underworld itself, the Goddess of witchcraft and necromancy is the only one who can bring the deadly conflict to an end...

What We Can Know by Ian McEwan

From the masterful Ian McEwan comes a brand new fictional tour de force.

2119: The lowlands of the UK have been submerged by rising seas. Those who survive are haunted by the richness of the world that has been lost.

Tom Metcalfe, an academic at the University of the South Downs, part of Britain's remaining island archipelagos, pores over the archives of that distant era, captivated by the freedoms and possibilities of human life at its zenith. When he stumbles across a clue that may lead to the lost poem, a story is revealed of entangled loves and a crime that destroy his assumptions about people he thought he knew intimately well.

Pick a Colour by Souvankham Thammavongsa

Ning is a retired boxer, but to the customers who visit her nail salon, she is just another worker named Susan. On this summer's day, much like any other, the Susans buff and clip and polish and tweeze. They listen and smile and nod. But beneath this superficial veneer, Ning is a woman of rigorous intellect and profound depth. A woman enthralled by the intricacy and rhythms of her work, but also haunted by memories of paths not taken and opportunities lost.

As the day's work grinds on, the friction between Ning's two identities – as anonymous manicurist and brilliant observer of her own circumstances – will gather electric and crackling force, and at last demand a reckoning with the way the world of privilege looks at women like Ning.

Among the Burning Flowers by Samantha Shannon

Take your first steps into the epic. Yscalin, land of sunshine and lavender, will soon be ablaze.

It has been centuries since the Draconic Army took wing, almost extinguishing humankind.

And now the great wyrm Fýredel is stirring, and Yscalin will be the first to fall.

A story of human resilience in the face of dire circumstances, Among the Burning Flowers is a propulsive stand-alone prequel to the million-copy fantasy bestseller The Priory of The Orange Tree.

Will There Ever Be Another You by Patricia Lockwood

Amid a global pandemic, one woman is trying to keep the pieces together – of her family, stunned by a devastating loss, and of her mind, left mangled and misfiring from a mystifying disease.

Has the illness stolen her old mind and given her a new one? Does it mean she'll get to start over from scratch, a chance afforded to very few people? The very weave of herself seems to have loosened: time and memories pass straight through her body. "I'm sorry not to respond to your email," she writes, "but I live completely in the present now".

Will There Ever Be Another You is the brain-shredding, phosphorescent story of one woman's dissolution, as well as a profound investigation into what keeps us alive in times of unprecedented disorientation and loss, from the Booker- and Women’s Prize-shortlisted author of No One Is Talking About This.

October

The Witching Hour by Various 

From the creators of The Haunting Season and The Winter Spirits comes a brand-new collection of ghostly tales from much loved authors.

Transporting you from the smog of London to the freezing mists of Svalbard, from an Irish town riddled with rumour to a sinister English boarding school, these dazzling stories will serve as your spinetingling companion to the long hours of winter.

So curl up, light a candle, and wait for the clock to strike...

Heap Earth Upon It by Chloe Michelle Howarth

January 1965. The orphaned O'Leary siblings – Tom, Jack, Anna and Peggy – arrive in the village of Ballycrea, tight-lipped about their troubled past and desperate for a fresh start.

After being met with suspicion from most of the locals, the family are thrilled when they're taken under the wing of their well-respected neighbours. But for one of the O'Learys, this new friendship sparks an intense attachment that makes the dynamic dangerous for all. It's difficult to bury secrets, but almost impossible to bury feelings...

The Midnight Timetable by Bora Chung, translated by Anton Hur

In a labyrinthine research facility where those who open the wrong door might find it's disappeared behind them, or that the echoing footsteps they're running from are their own, an unnamed protagonist begins their night shift under the watchful eye of the building's enigmatic senior guard.

As the nights stretch on and reality frays, the protagonist starts to suspect that the building itself is alive with malevolent intent – that the objects aren't just cursed, but waiting. Watching.

Equal parts bone-chilling, wryly funny and deeply political, The Midnight Timetable is a masterful work of literary horror from author of the cult-favourite, Cursed Bunny.

The Long Shoe by Bob Mortimer

The brand-new novel from number one bestselling author and national treasure Bob Mortimer.

Bathroom salesman Matt is at a crossroads. He has lost his job, he is about to be made homeless and his girlfriend has left him. He wants his luck to change and he wants things to go back to how they were. Out of the blue he is offered a job that comes with a free luxury apartment. He hopes this might be enough to tempt her back. But, as events unfold, it starts to dawn on him that perhaps she didn't leave of her own accord after all...

November

Bluff by Francine Toon

Joanie, 2013. Desperate to flee the claustrophobia of St Rule, Joanie has long been looking forward to her big escape. But on the night of her school graduation this dream slips through her hands. Devastated, Joanie falls into the orbit of an enigmatic couple – Erin and David – who offer her a new kind of escape.

Cameron, 2023. When Cameron arrives back in St Rule for Christmas a question burns in his mind: what ever happened to Joanie? As he starts to look for answers, it becomes clear that someone wants to keep this secret buried at all costs. How far should he go to pursue the truth?

Set amongst the ancient cobblestone of a Scottish coastal town steeped in history, Francine Toon masterfully blends the tension of a mystery with the chill of an epic modern gothic.

The Eleventh Hour by Salman Rushdie

Two quarrelsome old men in Chennai, India, experience private tragedy against the backdrop of national calamity. Revisiting the Bombay neighbourhood of Midnight's Children, a magical musician is unhappily married to a multibillionaire. In an English college, an undead academic can't rest until he avenges his former tormentor.

Spanning from Channai and Bombay to Oxford, The Eleventh Hour is the magisterial new work from one of our greatest living writers. It speaks deeply to what Salman Rushdie has come from and through, and strikes into the heart of our fractious times.

July

The Jackfruit Chronicles: Recipes and Memories from a British-Bangladeshi Kitchen by Shahnaz Ahsan

Award-winning food writer and novelist Shahnaz Ahsan guides us through a moving exploration of family, food and what it means to belong in this heartwarming memoir. Beginning with the arrival of her grandfather, Habib, in Manchester in the 1950s, this family story is also the tale of the Bangladeshi diaspora's quest for a new life in Britain, as well as the captivating tale of Bengali food and its place in Britain.

Ahsan beautifully weaves together this narrative of migration and hope with treasured family recipes, including dishes like sour tomato broth, jackfruit kofta curry, lentil fritters, fish with clementine peels and much more.

Neurodivergent, By Nature: Why Biodiversity Needs Neurodiversity by Joe Harkness

Time in nature supports our wellbeing. If we are neurodivergent, it can stimulate our senses, feed our curiosity and help us find others with the same deep interests. But why do natural environments have such profound effects?

After receiving an ADHD diagnosis in his thirties, Joe Harkness connected with other neurodivergent people who share his passion for the natural world. Threading their stories with his own, Joe explores the ways they find solace and understanding through nature, while highlighting the creativity, skills and passion that can benefit communities, schools and workplaces when neurodiversity is welcomed and supported in all its forms.

Algospeak: How Social Media Is Transforming the Future of Language by Adam Aleksic

The internet has ushered in an entirely new era of etymology. With over 7 billion internet users uploading over 2.5 quintillion bytes of media every day, the sheer volume of potential new words is astounding.

In Algospeak, online etymologist Adam Aleksic shines a light on the roots of words that we don’t realise have come from unexpected places – from incel culture, from the innovation of users trying to get around content moderation algorithms, from the marketing speak that has invaded our personal lives. 

An energetic, astonishing journey into language and the internet, Algospeak reveals the bigger social story of how language shapes us, just as much as we shape it.

August

Long Day? Cook This: Easy East Asian Recipes with a Twist by Justin Tsang

Cooking in his London flat, Justin Tsang (aka TikTok sensation Justin the Dustbin) shares his recipe creations online, making East Asian-flavoured food not just properly delicious but simple, too. Using his expertise as a chef at his family's Chinese restaurant, he brings together flavours from Korea, Hong Kong, Japan, China and more, to create dishes that will leave you feeling full but wanting to go back for more.

Whether you're after something fresh, spicy, comforting, zingy... or just want something ready in 20 minutes, there's a guaranteed new favourite to discover in this 100-recipe cookbook.

The Quiet Ear: An Investigation of Missing Sound by Raymond Antrobus

Raymond Antrobus was first diagnosed as deaf at the age of six.

Growing up in East London to an English mother and Jamaican father, educated in both mainstream and deaf schooling systems, Raymond explores the shame of miscommunication, the joy of finding community and shines a light on the decline of deaf education in Britain.

This groundbreaking and much-needed examination of deafness sets Raymond's own story alongside those of the inspiring D/deaf cultural figures – from painters to silent film stars, poets to performers – that he did not have growing up. It's a memoir, a cultural history, a call to action.

September

An Inconvenience of Penguins by Jamie Lafferty

Penguins are one of the most immediately recognisable animals on Earth. Yet what do we really know about them? An Inconvenience of Penguins follows award-winning travel writer Jamie Lafferty on a birding quest like no other as he visits all 18 species in some of the world's most inaccessible and challenging landscapes.

From getting stranded in the Galapagos to marching through African guano fields, Lafferty recounts the history of our unique relationship with the world's most popular bird. Featuring cameos from a wide cast of characters including Ernest Shackleton, Charles Darwin, and Sir Francis Drake, this is part-love letter and part-biography of these remarkable creatures.

This is For Everyone by Tim Berners-Lee

The most influential inventor of the modern world, Sir Tim Berners-Lee is a different kind of visionary. Born in the same year as Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, Berners-Lee famously shared his invention, the World Wide Web, for no commercial reward. Its widespread adoption changed everything, transforming humanity into the first digital species.

In this intimate memoir, Berners-Lee tells the story of his iconic invention, exploring how it launched a new era of creativity and collaboration while unleashing a commercial race that today imperils democracies and polarises public debate. Filled with his characteristic optimism, technical insight and wry humour, this is a book about the power of technology – both to fuel our worst instincts and to profoundly shape our lives for the better.

Ferment: The Life-Changing Power of Microbes by Tim Spector

Tim Spector is on a mission to bring fermenting into our lives and kitchens. Drawing on the latest science and his own experiments, Ferment is an accessible introduction to the life-changing benefits of fermentation – for beginners and enthusiasts alike.

Including practical tips and some of his favourite recipes, Ferment cuts through myths and misunderstanding to help us navigate the fascinating world of ferments and shows how they can help improve our health, our meal times and our planet.

Homeward Bound: The joy of nature and my life outdoors by Hamza Yassin

As a child who struggled with dyslexia at school, Hamza – now a celebrated wildlife cameraman and presenter – longed to be in the world outside the classroom. 

Homeward Bound tells the story of Hamza's love of the outdoors: from his day job filming wildlife to his beloved walks with Midge the dog. Here, he shares his most precious moments in nature – from the grasslands of Wiltshire to the Scottish Highlands – and teaches us how to look at nature with fresh eyes, and to marvel at its beauty.

Home may be closer than you think.

Fly, Wild Swans: My Mother, Myself and China by Jung Chang

Jung Chang's Wild Swans was a book that defined a generation – the story of 'three daughters of China': Jung, her mother and her grandmother. Fly, Wild Swans is, quite simply, what happened next.

Jung Chang arrived in the UK in 1978 aged 26, part of a Chinese scholarship programme for study abroad. Finding herself in the London of punk, political protests and Ziggy Stardust, she felt as if she'd landed on the moon. Her studies took off and she became the first person from the People's Republic of China to be awarded a doctorate from a British university.

Fly, Wild Swans is, in many ways, Jung's love letter to her mother, set against China's development. Through the arc of their respective lives, she gives an immersive, deeply moving and unforgettable account of what it is like to live in a communist dictatorship. It is family history at its best.

Finding My Way by Malala Yousafzai

How do you rebuild yourself when your whole world changes overnight?

Thrust onto the public stage at fifteen years old after the Taliban's brutal attack on her life, Malala quickly became an international icon known for bravery and resilience. But away from the cameras and crowds, she spent years struggling to find her place in an unfamiliar world. Now, for the first time ever, Malala takes readers beyond the headlines in Finding My Way – a vulnerable, surprising memoir that buzzes with authenticity, sharp humour and tenderness, reminding us that real role models aren't perfect – they're human. 

Dead and Alive: Essays by Zadie Smith

In this keenly awaited new collection, Zadie Smith brings her unique skills as an essayist to bear on a range of subjects which have captured her attention in recent years.

She takes an exhilaratingly close look at artists Toyin Ojih Odutola and Celia Paul. She invites us along to the movies, to see and to think about Tar, and to Glastonbury to witness the ascendance of Stormzy. She asks us to look again at the young Michael Jackson and to mourn with her the passing of writers Joan Didion, Martin Amis, Hilary Mantel, Philip Roth and Toni Morrison. And she shows us once again her unrivalled ability to think through critically and humanely some of the most urgent preoccupations and tendencies of our troubled times.

What Have I Done? My Autobiography by Ben Elton

Many people think they know who Ben Elton is – but does he?

For the first – and only – time, Ben tackles this question head-on in his frank, forthright and entertaining autobiography. It's a deep dive into his life and times, both private and public, to reveal his early life in Catford, being the BBC's youngest ever sitcom writer at 21, the true stories behind iconic hits such as The Young Ones, Blackadder and We Will Rock You, his pioneering routines hosting Saturday Live, and so much more.

After living sixty five years on the planet, forty-five of them in public, tickling many funny bones and getting on a respectable number of wicks, Ben has a lot of stories to tell, and he tells them unvarnished and uncensored – because that's who he is.

Keep Laughing by Chris McCausland

Strictly-star Chris McCausland was a successful stand-up, actor, TV presenter and panel show favourite long before he danced into the hearts of the nation with his ground-breaking performances on the BBC's biggest show.

After growing up in Liverpool and studying software engineering at Kingston University, Chris lost his sight at the age of twenty-two. Forced to rethink his career plans, he worked in sales before applying for a job as a spy at MI5. But, following an appearance at an open mic night in 2003, he turned his hand to stand-up. National Security's loss was comedy's gain. And he promises that his book 'will be really funny'.

Mother Mary Comes to Me by Arundhati Roy

Booker-winning radical icon Arundhati Roy gives a soaring account, both intimate and inspiring, of how she became the person and the writer she is.

Born out of the onrush of memories and feelings provoked by her mother Mary's death, this is the astonishing, often disturbing and surprisingly funny memoir of the Arundhati Roy’s life, from childhood to the present, from Kerala to Delhi.

With the scale, sweep and depth of her novels, The God of Small Things and The Ministry of Utmost Happiness, and the passion, political clarity and warmth of her essays, this book is an ode to freedom, a tribute to thorny love and savage grace – a memoir like no other.

Funny Thing, Getting Older: And Other Reflections by Michael Morpurgo

Michael Morpurgo is one of Britain's most beloved novelists, best known for enchanting children with his books like War Horse and Private Peaceful. Here, collected for the first time, are his thoughts on nature, childhood, education, war, and getting older.

This is a series of gathered reflections - many were written for radio, some are articles from newspapers, and some are lectures. Some are deeply personal, some political, others in between. Woven in amongst them you will find a play, a poem or two, and even a few stories too.

Full of gentle humour and sharp observation, Funny Thing, Getting Older is a book to ponder and treasure.

November

Book of Lives: A Memoir of Sorts by Margaret Atwood

Raised by ruggedly independent, scientifically minded parents – entomologist father, dietician mother – Margaret Atwood spent most of each year in the wild forest of northern Quebec. 

From this unconventional start, Atwood unfolds the story of her life, from the cruel year that spawned Cat's Eye to divided 1980s Berlin where she began The Handmaid's Tale. In pages bursting with bohemian gatherings, her magical life with the wildly charismatic writer Graeme Gibson and major political turning points, we meet poets, bears, Hollywood actors and larger-than-life characters straight from the pages of an Atwood novel.

As we travel with her along the course of her life, more and more is revealed about the connections between real life and art – and the workings of one of our greatest imaginations.

Bread of Angels by Patti Smith

The most intimate of Smith's memoirs, Bread of Angels takes us through her teenage years where the first glimmers of art and romance take hold. Arthur Rimbaud and Bob Dylan emerge as creative heroes and role models as Patti starts to write poetry, then lyrics, merging both into the iconic songs and recordings such as 'Horses' and 'Easter', 'Dancing Barefoot' and 'Because the Night'.

As Smith suffers profound losses, grief and gratitude are braided through years of caring for her children, rebuilding her life and, finally, writing again – the one constant in a life driven by artistic freedom and the power of the imagination to transform the mundane into the beautiful, the commonplace into the magical, and pain into hope. In the final pages, we meet Patti on the road again, the vagabond who travels to commune with herself, who lives to write and writes to live.

It’s Okay Not to Get Along With Everyone by Dancing Snail

It's Okay Not to Get Along With Everyone explores the necessity of maintaining a healthy distance in relationships and surrounding yourself with people you are comfortable with.

Whether it's learning to say no, embracing solitude without guilt or prioritising personal wellbeing over pleasing others, this book serves as a guide for those seeking balance in their everyday interactions with people.

Written in short-form chapters and with charming illustrations, It's Okay to Not Get Along With Everyone is a must-read for anyone looking to cultivate healthier and more fulfilling connections in their lives.