The best fiction books of 2025, and all time

Th Women is the latest novel from bestselling author Kristin Hannah. When her brother enlists in the Army at the start of the Vietnam War, young nursing student Frances “Frankie” McGrath’s life changes in ways she could have never imagined. Following her brother to Asia to serve in the Army Nursing Corps, Frances soon realises that women can be heroes too. Charting a young woman's experience of the power of female friendship and the bittersweet experience of first love, The Women is truly unputdownable. 

Shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2024, now out in paperback

Faced with the prospect of being sold to a new owner in New Orleans, and being separated from his wife and child, enslaved Jim hides on Jackson’s Island to plot his escape. Meeting Huck who is hiding from his volatile father, the pair team up and embark on a dangerous journey along the Mississippi River in search of freedom. From Percival Everett comes James, a poignant and funny novel which finally gives a voice to one of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn's most marginalised characters. 

When a man knocks on Eilis Fiorello’s door and introduces himself with a lilting, familiar Irish accent, for the first time in decades she begins to doubt her safe, happy life on Long Island. Married to Tony for twenty years, with two children and a home they’ve built together, the arrival of this stranger and his shocking revelation sees Eilis drawn back to her native Ireland and the life and family she left behind all those years ago. The sequel to Colm Tóibín's masterful, award-winning novel Brooklyn, Long Island is one of the must-read books of 2024. 

Logan McRae is back in Stuart MacBride's new thriller. It’s not going well for Aberdeen's NE Division: half the force is off sick, all leave has been cancelled, someone has firebombed a hotel full of migrants and there’s a massive protest march happening this Saturday. With officers dropping like flies, Detective Inspector Logan McRae has to kick off a major murder investigation with a skeleton staff of misfits, idiots and malingerers until the top brass can arrange back-up from other divisions. But, as bad as everything seems, things are about to get much, much worse.

Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil follows three women across different centuries, bound by their hunger for freedom and desire. In 1521, Maria, betrothed to a Viscount, craves more than the confines of noble life. In 2019, Alice runs from her past in Scotland to Boston, hoping for reinvention. And in 1827 London, Charlotte struggles with the intoxicating yet toxic pull of forbidden love. As their paths intertwine, the cast of complex, angsty characters, makes V.E. Schwab's new genre-defying book a hauntingly addictive read.

If you like your literature bittersweet, funny and painfully relatable, this is the book for you. Maggie, Harley and Róise are friends on the brink: of triumph, catastrophe, or maybe just finally growing up. Their crumbling Belfast house share has been witness to their roaring twenties, but now fault-lines are beginning to show. The three girls are still grieving the tragic death of their friend, Lydia, whose room remains untouched. Their last big fight hangs heavy over their heads, unspoken since the accident. And now they are all beginning to unravel.

The 1960s. Teenager Edith has been sent by her mother to rural Italy. She must find her sister Lydia, a ballet dancer, help as she gives birth, then make a phone call which will seal all their fates. Decades later, another phone call changes the course of Edith's best friend Maebh's life, as an American man claiming to be her brother asks to meet. This new novel from bestselling author Sarah Moss explores familial love, migration and new beginnings.

The author of The Attic Child is back, with a powerful dual narrative historical novel. To the world Mrs Copplefield is the epitome of Victorian propriety: an exemplary society lady who writes a weekly column advising young ladies on how to be better wives. Only Adeline has never been a good wife or mother; she has no claim to the Copplefield name, nor is she an English lady. Now a black woman, born in Africa, who dared to pretend to be something she was not, is on trial in the English courts with all of London society baying for her blood. And she is ready to tell her story.

Two competing stories – and genres – combine to peel back the nature of grief in this startlingly original debut novel. When Benjamin dies at his own birthday party, Abigail's world is quite literally split in two. On one side, she attempts to grasp the reality of her brother's death, while on the other everything is not quite what it seems: an eminent detective has arrived to track down the murderer, and there's suddenly a butler, a gardener and a locked-room mystery where everyone is a suspect.

Days of Light follows Ivy, a young woman whose life is forever changed when her brother Joseph drowns near their family home. At his funeral, she meets the man she will marry and the woman she will love, setting the course for a life marked by unconventional choices. Spanning from 1938, through World War II, and into the twenty-first century, the novel traces Ivy's journey in a world shaped by art, love, and the search for meaning.

This hypnotic piece of historical fiction will take you to Norfolk in 990AD, where a group of nuns live deep in the Fens. When a young boy dies in the mere that surrounds their home, the steely leadership of Abbess Sigeburg begins to waver and dark secrets start to reveal themselves. Then proud Sister Wulfrun, a recent arrival to the convent, has a vision: a curse is upon them and change must be brought. Is she saint or serpent? To Hilda, Wulfrun is a signal bolder and brighter than any fire set – one she cannot help but follow . . 

Autumn, 1895. An anarchist boards the ill-fated Granville to Paris express train, determined to make her mark on history. Aboard the train are others from across the globe: the railway crew who have built a life together away from their wives, a little boy travelling alone for the first time, an artist far from home, a wealthy statesman and his invalid wife, and a young woman with a secret. This is a historical thriller you won't be able to put down. 

This is the epic follow-up to the New York Times bestseller Sword Catcher (which you can find more about below if you're yet to read it). Lin and Kel once again find themselves entangled with the ruler of Castellane’s criminal underworld. As the simmering tensions in their city-state reach a fever pitch, they must decide who to trust when any false move means death – or worse.

When Katie’s nine-year relationship ends – suddenly and unexpectedly – she arrives at her friends' flat share with no idea what to do next. Friends Dee, Liv and Rosa come up with an idea to help: a handbook for heartbreak. Armed with some martinis and old sketchbook, they compile notes on crying, hangovers, music, buying new sheets and being really, really angry. But Katie is not the only one nursing a broken heart. Could they all benefit from their shared advice?

Eva is sixteen and living in Brooklyn when she meets super-rich Upper East-Sider Jamie in the hospital her grandmother is dying in. So begins this coming-of-age debut novel from short story writer Clare Sestanovich. As Eva goes to university, and falls in and out of love, Jamie spirals away from her into a world of radical politics and religion. But they're both looking for the same thing: a way to define themselves and their beliefs in a divided and unjust world. 

Garrett Carr's debut takes us to Ireland's west coat in the 1970s, where a baby is found alone on the beach. Adopted by fisherman Ambrose Bonnar, the boy captivates Bonnar's family and the close-knit town immediately, through love, worry and envy. Set over twenty years, this is a tale of ordinary lives made extraordinary, and a quiet community attempting to adapt in a fast-changing world.

Living in south London, doing her best to support her family after being abandoned by her father as a child, twenty-three-year-old Sirad Ali is pretty sure this is not the life she really wants. Then, on her commute to work, she's suddenly transported to an alternate life in present-day Mogadishu, and encounters Ubah, the woman she could have been had her parents not fled to London during the Somali Civil War. On her equally sudden return to Greenwich, Sirad must find a way to continue with her normal life. But then Ubah mysteriously appears in London.

Cyrus Shams’ life so far has been defined by one moment, his mother’s death. Shot down in a passenger plane over the Persian Gulf, Cyrus never got the chance to know her and has spent his adult life running away from her ghost. Newly sober and determined to carve out a different life for himself, Cyrus meets a dying artist who shows him where to discover the truth about his past. Witty, original and incredibly poignant, Martyr! is one of the most hotly anticipated debuts of 2024. 

Booker Prize-winning author Alan Hollinghurst returns with Our Evenings, the darkly funny story of Dave Win, who, after winning a privately funded scholarship to his local boarding school, is thrust into an upper-class world he has never experienced. Through the story of Win's life, with all its triumphs and pains, Hollinghurst holds up a mirror to modern England, exploring themes of race, class, sexuality, love, and the power the upper classes wield over theatre and art.

The Kamogawa Diner in Kyoto is no ordinary restaurant. Run by retired police detective Nagare Kamogawa and his daughter, Koishi, the pair sleuth behind the scenes to uncover their guests’ culinary histories and serve dishes that transport them back to their most cherished memories. In The Restaurant of Lost Recipes, the second novel in Hisashi Kashiwai’s cosy Japanese fantasy mystery series, Nagare and Koishi help a variety of guests reconnect with their pasts, from a former pop star looking for a fresh start to a budding Olympic swimmer searching for inspiration.

Kate Mosse returns with The Map of Bones, the final novel in her The Joubert Family Chronicle historical fiction series, an epic multi-generational story of women blazing their own trails and fighting to survive. From Suzanne Joubert, a refugee who arrives at the Cape of Good Hope in search of her cousin – a feared pirate who vanished without a trace in the 1620s – to her descendant Isabelle Lepard, who journeys into the heart of the frontier to find her family, Mosse weaves an enthralling tale of the Joubert women’s trials and tribulations.

As a man and a child make their way across an arid, scorched landscape, their only goal is to find shelter. Finding an abandoned mine site they have no choice but to seek safety, even though they have no idea who or what might be waiting for them down below. A dystopian novel set in a world baked dry, in Juice, Booker-shortlisted author Tim Winton asks: how far will humankind go to survive? 

The first time Zoe sets eyes on fellow academic Dr Penny Cartwright at a flute recital, she is instantly captivated by her. Older, charming and sophisticated, Zoe doesn’t think she has a chance with Penny, until the latter leaves her a mysterious note and the pair begin an affair that soon turns into so much more. Charlotte Mendelson’s Wife is a profound, poignant, and very funny story of how love and lust wax and wane, and how relationships evolve over time.

If you could go back and revisit your most treasured memory for one more day, what would you choose? In this whimsical and charming Japanese tale, people can do just that at the end of their lives. Reminiscing as they leaf through a pile of photos in their laps, the photo they choose will be placed in a beautiful lantern which whisks them back to the day they most cherished. From a child fighting to survive, to a former Yakuza member remembering his past, each of the lantern’s visitors has a unique story to tell. 

If you’re looking for a romantic read to take on your summer holiday this year, look no further. Set in idyllic Italy, I'll Look for You, Everywhere follows former neighbours and childhood friends Theo and Magdalen as they return to the sleepy village they grew up in for a family wedding. Forced to address the romantic tension between them, will the pair be able to unravel the secrets of their shared past and finally admit how they feel about each other?

Longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction 2024

Edinburgh, October 1679. Lady Christian is arrested and charged with the murder of her lover, James Forrester. News of her imprisonment and subsequent trial is splashed across the broadsides, with headlines that leave little room for doubt: Adulteress. Whore. Murderess. Only a year before, Lady Christian was newly married, leading a life of privilege and respectability. What led her to risk everything for an affair? And does that make her guilty of murder? Inspired by a real-life case, this is a remarkable story with a feminist revisionist twist, giving a voice to women otherwise silenced by history.

Longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction 2024

Exploring themes of grief and sisterhood, this debut coming-of-age story packs all the feels into just 176 pages. Eleven-year-old Gopi has been playing squash for as long as she can remember. When her mother dies, her father enlists her in a brutal training regimen. Soon, the game has become her entire world, causing a rift between Gopi and her sisters. But on the court, governed by the rhythms of the sport, she feels alive. This novel beautifully captures the ordinary and annihilates it with beauty as we follow a young athlete's struggle to transcend herself. 

As Princess Anne of Denmark waits to prove herself worthy to wed King James VI of Scotland, her lady-in-waiting has her own reasons to ensure the marriage takes place without a hitch. Meanwhile, Jura, a young apothecary, travels to Edinburgh to escape the accusations made against her in her hometown and finds herself embroiled in the witch hunt that is gripping the city. Based on real historical events, in The King’s Witches Kate Foster paints a compelling portrait of three women at the heart of the sixteenth-century Scottish witch trials. 

Elizabeth Macneal is back with The Burial Plot, a taut Gothic thriller packed with murder, mystery and intrigue. Trying to get by in London in 1839, a city obsessed with the macabre and with its cemeteries packed to the rafters, Crawford and Bonnie rely on ill-gotten gains and tricks to make ends meet. But, when their fortunes take a turn for the worse, Bonnie takes a job as a lady’s maid for the eccentric Mr Moncrieff. As she learns the ways of the strange Moncrieff family, Bonnie begins to doubt everything she has ever known, and the person she trusts with her life. 

Six years on from his debut The Nix, Nathan Hill is back with another razor-sharp novel, which focuses its lens on a modern marriage, and the absurdity of our tech and health-obsessed culture. A gripping love story told over two decades, from first love and the excitement of youth to the quietness and introspection that comes with middle age, Wellness will make you look at your own life in a new way thanks to Hill’s ironic and insightful prose. 

Arriving in San Miguel, Mexico from her native India to learn Spanish for the summer, student Bonita relishes the chance to be whoever she wants to be. When she spies a woman watching her, who later tells her that she knew her mother as a young artist in the town, everything Bonita thinks she knows about the woman who raised her and their shared history is thrown into question. A novel about grief, memory, and identity from three-time Booker-shortlisted author Anita Desai, Rosarita shines a light on the ebb and flow of one mother-daughter relationship.

A historical thriller set in the heart of Victorian London’s seedy underbelly, this is must read for fans of all things gothic crime. When young Constance Horton disappears without a trace, her older sister Maude vows to find her. As she devours the the journal her sister left behind, Maude soon realises that a sinister secret is being hidden by dangerous forces and by some of the city’s most powerful men. Will she find Constance before it’s too late? This deliciously dark story is the perfect way to wile away cosy winter nights. 

Teresa Cepeda Valverde is a woman on a mission. Almost three decades after a massive fire on the Costa Rican banana plantation on which she lived and worked killed her family, she is still seeking answers about what happened that fateful night. As she and her daughter Lyra seek to find out what caused the fire, another family is doing their utmost to hide their generations of corruption. A redemption story about love, heritage and the forces of nature, Where There Was Fire is an atmospheric and beautiful novel which will whisk you away to another world this winter. 

Helen is one of the best minds of her generation. But when her irreplaceable advisor’s student sex scandal is exposed, she must choose whether to give up on her work or accompany him to RIP, a research institute which grants safe harbour to the disgraced and the deplorable. As Helen settles into life at the institute alongside her partner Hew, she develops a crush on an older novelist, while he is drawn to an increasingly violent protest movement. As the rift between them deepens, they both face major – and potentially world-altering – choices.

A gripping mystery set between Australia and London, Homecoming, is the latest book by Kate Morton. When 89-year-old Nora's health takes an unexpected turn for the worse, Jess boards the first plane out of London, her home of twenty years, to be by her grandmother's bedside in Sydney. Soon, she discovers that the usually stoic Nora has been hiding a family secret and vows to get to the heart of the mystery of what happened on a fateful Christmas Eve sixty years before. 

After relocating from San Francisco to Manhattan after her husband's death, Kezia is watching the 4th July firework display from her terrace, when she sees smoke and flames pouring from famous landmarks across New York City. Her neighbour, the famous movie star Sam Stewart, is also aware of the crisis, and watches in horror as the terrifying drama unfolds. They rush to the affected site and join the rescue operations. The harrowing event and their intense shared experiences in the following weeks foster a profound bond between Kezia and Sam, offering a touching tale about human connection and courage amidst crisis.

Darcy Gray leads a charmed life. A wildly successful blogger and influencer, she has spent twenty happy years with her husband, Charlie Gray. But when a shocking betrayal leaves Darcy reeling, she flees to Paris. As she struggles to rebuild herself, rumours of a dangerous new virus begin to circulate, forcing Darcy to take refuge at the home of retired actress, Sybille Carton, along with a fellow lodger, the enigmatic Bill Thompson. As the world enters global lockdown, the Gray family must find ways to cope in the toughest of circumstances, letting go of old dreams and working towards new, unexpected futures.

Threatened by the prospect of the Romans defeating her lover and the land she loves so much, Herla makes a deadly pact with the Otherworld King, who transforms her into the Lord of the Hunt. Over the next centuries she rides, stealing souls, until she meets a woman who will change her forever. A lyrical, otherworldly novel based on the folklore behind the Wild Hunt, set over centuries of British history, Song of the Huntress is a must-read for fans of Madeline Miller and Natalie Haynes. 

Winner of the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, Trust is undoubtedly one of the novels of the year. Everyone in 1920s New York knows of Benjamin and Helen Rask, the Wall Street tycoon and the daughter of bohemian aristocrats. They live in a sphere of untold wealth, but what is the true cost of their fortune? This mystery sits at the heart of a bestselling novel that all of New York has read. But, like all stories, there are different perspectives. Hernan Diaz tracks these narratives across a century and documents the truth-bending power of money, with provocative revelations at each turn.

Paris, 1928. A boy is found, moments from death, and taken in by a kindly family who gives him a life he could never have dreamed of, but he refuses to tell anyone who he truly is. As he grows into a young man, an evil is rising across Europe and he knows he must soon flee again. The final novel in the Seven Sisters series, Atlas: The Story of Pa Salt, reveals how the sisters came to be adopted by their beloved, mysterious father, drawing the epic series to a stunning, unforgettable conclusion. Finally, readers will know the answer to the ultimate question: who is Pa Salt?

This novel from the author of A Little Life spans stories of love, family, and loss over three centuries. 1893: New York is part of the Free States, and a member of a privileged family falls for an impoverished music teacher. 1993: Manhattan is being swept by the AIDS epidemic, and a Hawaiian man with a wealthy older partner must hide his family background. 2093: a world where plague and totalitarian rule is rife, a woman tries to solve the mystery of her husband's disappearance. This symphonic vision of America is a demonstration of Hanya Yanagihara's literary genius as she weaves three stories together. 

Small-town detective Aaron Falk returns in Exiles, the new novel from the bestselling author of The Dry, Jane Harper. When a young mother disappears on a warm spring night, leaving her baby alone in her pram at a busy festival, Falk begins to suspect that this is more than a cut-and-dry missing person’s case. A thrilling mystery novel with an evocative outback setting and heart-pounding twists, Exiles is a book you’ll want to discuss with everyone you know. 

First published in the UK in 2019, this million-copy bestseller is now available in a beautiful collectible hardback edition – the perfect gift. In a small back alley in Tokyo, there is a café which has been serving carefully brewed coffee for more than one hundred years. But this coffee shop offers its customers a unique experience: the chance to travel back in time. This opportunity is not without risks: customers must sit in a particular seat, they cannot leave the café, and finally, they must return to the present before the coffee gets cold. Toshikazu Kawaguchi’s beautiful novel has stolen the hearts of readers the world over. Through it, we meet four visitors to the café and explore the age-old question: what would you change if you could travel back in time?

Two outcasts find themselves at the centre of world-altering change. In Castellane, Kel is stolen to become Prince Conor Aurelian’s body-double. As his ‘Sword Catcher', Kel lives for one purpose: to die for Conor. Lin Caster is an Ashkar physician, part of a community ostracised for its rare magical abilities. But events pull her and Kel together and into the web of the mysterious Ragpicker King who rules Castellane’s criminal underworld. Together, they’ll discover an extraordinary conspiracy. But can forbidden love bring down a kingdom? 

'The new Bridget Jones' – Celia Walden, Telegraph

Meet Nell. Her life is a mess. Having left a great job in New York to start a new life in California with the man she loves, she's now back in London under a literal and metaphorical cloud. Unemployed, living in a stranger's spare room and having to compete with children, careers and a wealthy usurper called Annabel for the attention of her friends, she starts up a secret podcast as an outlet for her entertainingly expressed but deeply heartfelt frustration. Through this, alongside an unexpected friendship with octogenarian widow Cricket, things finally start to look up. 

Longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction 2023, this retelling of the famed myth of Medusa asks who the real monsters are. The sole mortal raised in a family of gods, Medusa is alone in her ability to experience change and to be hurt. Then, when the sea god Poseidon commits an unforgivable act in the temple of Athene, the goddess takes her revenge where she can – and she is changed forever. Writhing snakes replace her hair, and her gaze now turns any living creature to stone. Unable to control her new power, she is condemned to a life of shadows and darkness. Until Perseus embarks upon a quest . . .

A sunken jet. Nine passengers. A missing body. The Passenger is the story of a salvage diver, haunted by loss, afraid of the watery deep, pursued for a conspiracy beyond his understanding, and longing for a death he cannot reconcile with God. The first of two eagerly anticipated novels from literary great Cormac McCarthy The Passenger is followed by Stella Maris  – both are too good to be missed. 

Shortlisted for both the Booker Prize and the Women’s Prize for fiction, Room is a unique novel, about survival and innocence. Jack lives with his Ma in Room, which has a locked door and a skylight, and measures 11 feet by 11 feet. He loves watching TV, and the cartoon characters he calls friends, but he knows that nothing he sees on screen is truly real – only him, Ma and the things in Room. Until the day Ma admits that there’s a world outside. Now also a major film, Room is the story of a mother and son, told in Jack's voice, whose love lets them survive the impossible. 

Shortlisted for both the Booker Prize and the Women's Prize and now adapted into a West End play, A Little Life is undoubtedly one of the novels of the century. Hanya Yanagihara's flawless character development transports us into the lives of Jude, Willem, JB and Malcolm. We follow the central characters as they try to make their way in New York. Gradually, it is Jude and his unspeakable childhood that is revealed. By midlife he is both a terrifyingly talented litigator and an increasingly broken man, his mind and body scarred by trauma. The book follows Jude for decades, yet ultimately tells a story of love and friendship. 

Beautiful, intoxicating and filled with heart-pounding suspense, Jessie Burton's historical novel set in Amsterdam is both a bestseller and a major BBC TV series. In 1686, Nella Oortman arrives at a lavish house to marry merchant trader Johannes Brandt. Instead of a warm welcome, she encounters his sharp-tongued sister, Marin. Johannes gifts her an intricate miniature replica of their home, to be furnished by a mysterious miniaturist whose creations eerily reflect reality. As Nella delves into the secrets of the Brandt household, she unveils escalating dangers. Is the miniaturist holding their fate?

Inspired by true events, Emma Stonex’s debut novel is a riveting mystery which will grip the reader, and a beautifully written exploration of love and grief. In Cornwall in 1972, three keepers vanish from a remote lighthouse, miles from shore. The door is locked from the inside, and the clocks have stopped. What happened to those men, and to the women they left behind? 

On a snowy night in Toronto, renowned actor Arthur Leander dies on stage, coinciding with the arrival of a devastating virus in North America. Two decades later, Kirsten, a member of the Travelling Symphony, brings Shakespeare's words to life in the settlements that have emerged post-collapse. However, her newfound hope is jeopardized, prompting a critical question: in a world devoid of civilization, what is worth safeguarding? And to what lengths would one go to ensure its preservation? A dreamily atmospheric novel set in the eerie days of civilization's collapse, Emily St John Mandel's Station Eleven is also an HBO TV series. 

Douglas Stuart’s blistering, Booker Prize-winning debut is set in a poverty-stricken Glasgow in the early 1980s. Agnes Bain has always dreamed of greater things, but when her husband abandons her she finds herself trapped in a decimated mining town with her three children, and descends deeper and deeper into drink. Her son Shuggie tries to help Agnes long after her other children have fled, but he too must abandon her to save himself. But he believes that if he tries his hardest he can be like other boys and escape this hopeless place.

The extraordinary, powerful second novel from the Booker prize-winning author of Shuggie Bain, Young Mungo is both a vivid portrayal of working-class life and the deeply moving story of the dangerous first love of two young men: Mungo and James. Young Mungo is a gripping and revealing story about the meaning of masculinity, the push and pull of family, the violence faced by so many queer people, and the dangers of loving someone too much.

Raven Leilani is a funny and original new voice in fiction. Her razor-sharp yet surprisingly tender debut is an essential novel about what it means to be young now. Edie is messing up her life, and no one seems to care. Then she meets Eric, who is white, middle-aged and comes with a wife who has sort-of-agreed to an open marriage and an adopted black daughter who doesn’t have a single person in her life who can show her how to do her hair. And as if life wasn’t hard enough, Edie finds herself falling head-first into Eric’s family.

Bestselling fantasy sensation The Atlas Six follows six young magical practitioners as they compete to join the secretive Alexandrian Society, whose custodians guard lost knowledge from ancient civilizations. Their members enjoy a lifetime of power and prestige. Yet each decade, only six practitioners are invited – to fill five places. Following recruitment by the mysterious Atlas Blakely, they travel to the Society’s London headquarters. Here, each must study and innovate within esoteric subject areas. And if they can prove themselves, over the course of a year, they’ll survive. Most of them.

The Shape of Water is the first in Andrea Camilleri's wry, brilliantly compelling Sicilian crime series, featuring Inspector Montalbano. When two employees of the Splendour Refuse Collection Company discover the body of engineer Silvio Luparello, one of the local movers and shakers, apparently deceased in flagrante at the Pasture, the coroner's verdict is death from natural causes. But Inspector Salvo Montalbano, as honest as he is streetwise and as scathing to fools and villains as he is compassionate to their victims, is not ready to close the case – even though he's being pressured by Vigàta's police chief, judge, and bishop.

Normal People has sold over one million copies and been adapted into a hit TV series. The story follows Connell and Marianne who, despite being from different worlds, form an unspoken connection at school which then follows them to Trinity College. Marianne and Connell circle one another, straying toward other people and possibilities but always magnetically drawn back together. Then, as she veers into self-destruction and he begins to search for meaning elsewhere, each must confront how far they are willing to go to save the other. Sally Rooney's characteristically subtle yet intense prose marks her as one of the best writers of our times. 

One of the most influential fiction books of all time, 1984 is George Orwell's terrifying vision of a totalitarian future in which everything and everyone is slave to a tyrannical regime led by The Party. The novel has a fascinating history, from the phenomenon it became on publication to the impact it has had on the English language.

This novel has become a cultural byword for all things dystopian. The book is set in the fictional Republic of Gilead, a religious totalitarian state in what was formerly known as the United States. In an age of declining birth rates, Offred, along with her fellow Handmaids, are valued only if their ovaries are viable. Yet even a repressive state cannot eradicate hope and desire. Funny, unexpected, horrifying, and altogether convincing, The Handmaid's Tale is at once scathing satire, dire warning, and tour de force.

Evoking the glitz, glamour and the dark side of 1920s, The Great Gatsby is a cynical look at the limits of the American Dream and a must read for all fans of fiction. Gatsby lives mysteriously in a luxurious Long Island mansion, playing lavish host to hundreds of people. And yet no one seems to know him or how he became so rich. He is rumoured to be everything from a German spy to a war hero. People clamour for invitations to his wild parties. But Jay Gatsby doesn't heed them. He cares for one person alone – Daisy Buchanan, the woman he has waited for all his life. Little does he know that his infatuation will lead to tragedy and end in murder.

This twisty psychological thriller became a phenomenon when it was published, selling over twenty million copies worldwide and being adapted into a hit film starring Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike. When Nick Dunne wakes up on the morning of his fifth wedding anniversary to find his wife missing, he quickly becomes the police’s chief suspect. Amy’s friends reveal she was afraid of him, there are strange searches on his computer and persistent calls to his mobile phone, but Ben swears he knows nothing about any of this. So what really happened to Amy Dunne? 

This 2019 Booker Prize winner follows twelve characters on their personal journeys over the last one hundred years. From Newcastle to Cornwall and the beginning of the twentieth century to the modern day, each of them is searching for something. These wonderful interwoven stories address issues of race, identity and womanhood. Joyfully polyphonic and vibrantly contemporary, this is a gloriously new kind of history, a novel of our times: celebratory, ever-dynamic and utterly irresistible.