Books of the Year 2025

Of the 58 books that I read this year, these are the ones in my best of the best list. People ask me sometimes where I find the time to read so much. The answer is organisation, daily reading and little sleep. As usual, it's hard to make a top-10 list, and I can accept that other books could have figured in the list too. But with awarding both Javier Marías and Peter Frankopan in the top spot, I have not taken any risks. Both their books are brilliant. 

Fiction

1. Javier Marías - Tomás Nevinson  *****
2. Mircea Cărtărescu - Theodoros  *****
3. Nino Haratischwili - The Lack of Light: A Novel of Georgia ****½
4. Kaveh Akbar - Martyr! ****½
5. Vincent Delecroix - Naufrage ****½
6. Álvaro Enrigue - You Dreamed Of Empires ****
7. Elif Shafak - There Are Rivers In The Sky  ****
8. Solvej Balle - On the Calculation of Volume  ****
9. Mariana Enriquez - A Sunny Place For Shady People  ****
10. Antonio Muñoz Molina - Your Steps On The Stairs ****

I must admit that the winner dates from last year, but I hope to be forgiven for this. 

Other 4-star novels that did not make the top-10 are by Ian McEwan, Andrew Miller, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Christian Kracht. 

I also read some older work by W.G. Sebald : The Rings Of Saturn, which should be on many reading lists, and also Lucretius and Marcus Aurelius, but they are not so recent. 

I still have a pile of books to be read, here next to me, incluing Thomas Pynchon, Olga Ravn, Richard Flannagan, David Szalay, ...

Non-Fiction

1. Peter Frankopan - Earth Transformed - An Untold Story  *****
2. Jason Roberts - Every Living Thing  *****
3. Richard Dawkins - The Genetic Book Of The Dead ****½
4. Julian Baggini - How To Think Like A Philosopher  ****½
5. Arundhati Roy - Mother Mary Comes To Me  ****
6. Peter J. Hotez - The Deadly Rise Of Anti-Science ****
7. Timothy Snyder - On Freedom ****
8. Snezana Lawrence - A Little History of Mathematics  ****
9. Philipp Blom - Nature's Mutiny ****
10. Richard Whatmore - The End Of Enlightenment  ****

In the non-fiction category, Peter Frankopan's book is the true winner and recommended to everyone. I bought the book in paperback, and I'm thinking of buying the hard cover version. 

There is again a lot to read in various disciplines. The highest quality publication in terms of production is the book by Dawkins, beautifully illustrated and on heavy glossy paper. The most suprising and most literary non-fiction book is Arundhati Roy's autobiography.