Best books of 2025: the critics’ favourites
From Fly, Wild Swans by Jung Chang to The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai
The critics’ top eight choices based on Christmas selections in national newspapers
Fly, Wild Swans by Jung Chang
“Wild Swans”, Jung Chang’s 1991 memoir describing her and her family’s experiences under Chinese communism, was one of the most successful non-fiction books of all time. Now, Chang has written a sequel, which picks up the story where “Wild Swans” left off – with her move to England, aged 26, in 1978. The book charts her life in England, her career as a writer and her deteriorating relationship with her homeland (she used to visit regularly, but is no longer welcome). Critics described the book as a worthy successor to the earlier memoir, though some complained that Chang revisits much material from the earlier book.
Praise:
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“Chang’s use of personal and intimate experience to make unfathomable political events accessible works as triumphantly today as it did 34 years ago” (Kathryn Hughes, The Sunday Times).
“An engaging account of Chang’s life in Britain and China in the years since the Cultural Revolution ... thoughtful without being sentimental” (Rana Mitter, Literary Review).
“A gripping memoir ... Chang is brilliant at excavating the psychology of totalitarianism” (Sarah Ditum, The Times).
What We Can Know by Ian McEwan
Ian McEwan’s latest novel is set in 2119, in an England that is now largely under water, having been ravaged by catastrophic flooding. Although law and order have partly broken down (gangs of bandits roam the islands of the former Lake District), in other ways life doesn’t seem too different: at the University of the South Downs, lecturer Tom Metcalfe specialises in the literature of the early 21st century – a period now called “the Derangement”. Blending dystopia, campus satire and thriller, “What We Can Know” was praised for its energy and inventiveness, though a few critics found it rather baggy and disjointed.
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Praise:
“Has the dullest title of any novel published this year, but is easily the best I’ve read. The prose is blissfully good, up there with Roth and Bellow in old age” (Andrew Marr, The New Statesman).
“A philosophical novel masquerading as a bizarre dystopia of climate disaster” (Antony Beevor, The Spectator).
“A piece of late-career showmanship from an old master. It gave me so much pleasure, I sometimes felt like laughing” (Dwight Garner, The New York Times).
The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai
Kiran Desai’s first novel in 19 years – its predecessor, “The Inheritance of Loss”, won the 2006 Booker Prize – is a love story spanning decades about two characters from wealthy neighbouring families in Prayagraj (formerly Allahabad). Sonia and Sunny both move to America as young adults, he to work as a journalist, she to study. On returning to India, they meet on a train and feel drawn to one another; but many impediments stand in their way. Critics praised Desai’s evocative writing, and her handling of themes of exile and alienation. The novel was shortlisted for the Booker; many expected it to win.
Praise:
“Full of gorgeous nature writing and rueful human comedy, exploring where to find one’s centre in a globalised world” (Justine Jordan, The Guardian).
“Magnificent ... A beautiful, haunting epic about love, loss and the search for personhood in the modern world” (Lucy Scholes, The Telegraph).
“‘The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny’ is among those most rarefied books: better company than real-life people” (Alexandra Jacobs, The New York Times).
Careless People by Sarah Wynn-Williams
For seven years, beginning in 2011, Sarah Wynn-Williams worked at Facebook, becoming a director of global public policy. In “Careless People”, her memoir of her time there, she paints a damning portrait of the company. Facebook, she claims, treats its employees abysmally, cynically facilitates political extremism, and is unethical in its dealings with everyone from advertisers to vulnerable teenagers. CEO Mark Zuckerberg, meanwhile, is described as a “giant man-baby”. Reviewers said that the book was enjoyable and revealing; Facebook said it was highly misleading, and took legal action to try and suppress it.
Praise:
“Sharp and funny ... a ‘Bridget Jones’s Diary’-style tale of a young woman thrown into a series of improbable situations from which she manages to extricate herself” (Emma Duncan, The Times).
“Fantastically gripping ... hilariously funny, and tells the truth about our new rulers, the tech billionaire elite” (Naomi Alderman, The Spectator).
“I loved ‘Careless People’ ... a gripping account of how Facebook became a corrosive force in democracy and people’s daily lives” (Katie Martin, the Financial Times).
Get In by Patrick Maguire and Gabriel Pogrund
In this work of non-fiction, two of Britain’s leading political journalists explore how Labour wrested power from the Tories after 14 years in opposition. The authors claim that the real architect of last year’s election victory – and the true power behind the throne of Keir Starmer’s administration – is the PM’s chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney. “The Irishman”, as they call him, is depicted as a master strategist, who hand-picked Starmer to front his crusade to make Labour electable again. Reviewers generally accepted the book’s thesis, and described it as a juicy, rollicking read.
Praise:
“A gripping, exhaustively researched and fast-paced account of Starmer’s rise to power ... It reads as if the authors were alongside McSweeney and Starmer as they grapple with multiple crises” (Jason Cowley, The Sunday Times).
“The go-to book for anyone trying to understand what has gone wrong with Sir Keir Starmer’s government” (Robert Shrimsley, the Financial Times).
“McSweeney is the hero – or antihero, according to taste – of a rattling tale terrifically well told” (Andrew Rawnsley, The Observer).
Perfection by Vincenzo Latronico
This short novel by Italian writer Vincenzo Latronico is inspired by Georges Perec’s 1965 debut, “Things” – which chronicled the lives of two market researchers through the objects they own. In Latronico’s updated version, Anna and Tom are a pair of freelance digital creatives living in Berlin in the 2010s. Striving for a “rarefied” existence, they define themselves through their taste: owning the right objects, going to the right restaurants, obsessively curating their lives online. The novel was widely praised as a brilliant satire on millennial hipsterdom – although some argued that it itself partakes of the emptiness it strives to depict.
Praise:
“Curious and idiosyncratic” (Zadie Smith, The New Statesman).
“Latronico has written one of the most brilliantly controlled works of social realism I’ve read in a while ... made me want to whoop and vomit at the same time” (Johanna Thomas-Corr, The Sunday Times).
“A crushingly sad indictment of a rootless generation – digital nomads wandering through a generic Europe ... it is funnier and far more moving than a book about the woes of late capitalism ought to be” (Daniel Swift, The Spectator).
The Boundless Deep by Richard Holmes
Before he became a stuffy poet laureate, Alfred Tennyson was a surprisingly glamorous figure: habitually swathed in a black Spanish cloak, he was tall, long-haired and strikingly handsome. This “young Tennyson” is whom the acclaimed biographer Richard Holmes focuses on in his latest book, charting the poet’s unhappy childhood (his clergyman father was an alcoholic tyrant), his intellectual awakening at Cambridge, and the death of his close friend Arthur Hallam, which inspired his masterpiece “In Memoriam”. The book was praised for refining our view of Tennyson, and its vivid depiction of Victorian society.
Praise:
“Holmes proves a master of his craft ... he evokes Tennyson’s early years against the backdrop of the shifting scientific discoveries of the early 19th century” (Andrew Lycett, The Spectator).
“Holmes swats the crepe and the cobwebs away to restore the living Tennyson as he was before he fossilised into a Victorian sage” (James Marriott, The Times).
“A fascinating insight into a great British poet whose depths ... remain boundless themselves” (Constance Higgins, The Telegraph).
Flesh by David Szalay
The winner of this year’s Booker Prize charts the life of István – a Hungarian man who escapes a troubled upbringing to enjoy immense wealth in London, only to suffer a major reversal of fortune later in life. István is an unusual protagonist for a literary novel: he’s inarticulate, passive and emotionally numb. Reflecting his sparse inner life, the book is written in brutally pared back prose. Most critics described it as compulsively readable, and praised Szalay for his bold artistic choices – although some complained that István’s limitations ultimately make him a boring character.
Praise:
“A wonderfully restrained vision of one man’s life. It’s a stunning portrayal of modern masculinity and a worthy Booker winner” (Laura Hackett, The Times).
“Absolutely worth your time – a compelling, unobvious novel from an intriguingly restless writer” (Claire Lowdon, the Times Literary Supplement).
“A gripping study of the choices that can make or break a life ... Szalay draws characters superbly, drives the plot deftly, and mercilessly exposes the emptiness of such phrases as, ‘Are you okay?’ and ‘It’s okay’” (Franklin Nelson, The Spectator).