The 15 best books of 2025 so far, picked by our experts

Our interview, The Women’s Orchestra of Auschwitz, Our review, John & Paul: A Love Story in Songs, Our review, The Extinction of Experience, Our review, The Challenges of Democracy, Our review, On the Calculation of Volume (vols 1 and 2), Our review, Base Notes, Our review, Rain of Ruin, Our review, The City Changes its Face, Our review, Unholy Kingdom: Religion, Corruption and Violence in Saudi Arabia, Our review, Don’t Forget We’re Here Forever, Our review, …and the best books to come, Buckley: The Life and the Revolution That Changed America, Electric Spark: The Enigma of Muriel Spark, The Möbius Book, Tunisgrad: Destroying the Axis, 1942-3

Best Books of 2025

What to read next? A good book may be the antidote to screen-time and “brain-rot”; but with an overwhelming choice out there, it can be hard to know where to start.

Thankfully, our critics review hundreds of books a year, including everything from weighty biographies to page-turning crime dramas. So, cut down to the very best of the best, here are their picks of 2025 so far.

(Plus, here on the Telegraph’s Books Desk, we always keep one eye on the horizon – so if you’re looking to pre-order your summer reading, jump straight to our Best Books to Come.)

Flesh

by David Szalay

Our interview, The Women’s Orchestra of Auschwitz, Our review, John & Paul: A Love Story in Songs, Our review, The Extinction of Experience, Our review, The Challenges of Democracy, Our review, On the Calculation of Volume (vols 1 and 2), Our review, Base Notes, Our review, Rain of Ruin, Our review, The City Changes its Face, Our review, Unholy Kingdom: Religion, Corruption and Violence in Saudi Arabia, Our review, Don’t Forget We’re Here Forever, Our review, …and the best books to come, Buckley: The Life and the Revolution That Changed America, Electric Spark: The Enigma of Muriel Spark, The Möbius Book, Tunisgrad: Destroying the Axis, 1942-3

Flesh by David Szalay

Fifteen-year-old István is lonely. Having moved to a new town in Hungary, he falls into a clandestine relationship with his neighbour – a much older, married woman – and finds it well beyond anything he understands. Szalay’s 2016 novel All That Man Is, shortlisted for the Booker prize, was full of skilful, funny dialogue, and Flesh may be even better. It’s a study in modern masculinity for a world in which, as Szalay told us in an interview this spring, “you can’t write like Martin Amis any more.”

Our interview

“I always want to depict sex as honestly as I can, which is something you can’t, for instance, do so well on Netflix, because on screen there is only so far you can go,” he says. “Of course, men engaging in casual sex is no longer allowed to pass without comment. There’s no longer that sense that boys will be boys. So I expect the main character in Flesh to draw quite a bit of disapproval.”

The Women’s Orchestra of Auschwitz

by Anne Sebba (W&N, £22)

Our interview, The Women’s Orchestra of Auschwitz, Our review, John & Paul: A Love Story in Songs, Our review, The Extinction of Experience, Our review, The Challenges of Democracy, Our review, On the Calculation of Volume (vols 1 and 2), Our review, Base Notes, Our review, Rain of Ruin, Our review, The City Changes its Face, Our review, Unholy Kingdom: Religion, Corruption and Violence in Saudi Arabia, Our review, Don’t Forget We’re Here Forever, Our review, …and the best books to come, Buckley: The Life and the Revolution That Changed America, Electric Spark: The Enigma of Muriel Spark, The Möbius Book, Tunisgrad: Destroying the Axis, 1942-3

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Most men, women and children who walked into Auschwitz never returned. But one group of women were spared by the Nazis on account of their musical talents. Forcibly arranged into an orchestra, they were made to play both for inmates and the “music-loving” SS guards. Anne Sebba’s remarkable book draws on real-life interviews, and lays out what the survivors endured.

Our review

Anne Sebba’s impressive book on the women who formed an orchestra in Auschwitz is subtitled “A Story of Survival”: and that, paradoxically, was the problem for many who played in it. They were not sent to the gas chambers at the whim of the camp authorities; their musicality gave them a use to the Nazis that, in most cases, saved their lives...

John & Paul: A Love Story in Songs

by Ian Leslie (Faber, £25)

Our interview, The Women’s Orchestra of Auschwitz, Our review, John & Paul: A Love Story in Songs, Our review, The Extinction of Experience, Our review, The Challenges of Democracy, Our review, On the Calculation of Volume (vols 1 and 2), Our review, Base Notes, Our review, Rain of Ruin, Our review, The City Changes its Face, Our review, Unholy Kingdom: Religion, Corruption and Violence in Saudi Arabia, Our review, Don’t Forget We’re Here Forever, Our review, …and the best books to come, Buckley: The Life and the Revolution That Changed America, Electric Spark: The Enigma of Muriel Spark, The Möbius Book, Tunisgrad: Destroying the Axis, 1942-3

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Let It Be, Penny Lane, Across the Universe, Yesterday – it was the greatest songwriting partnership in pop history. But as Ian Leslie’s superb book explains, while the relationship between Lennon and McCartney have looked brotherly from the outside, behind the scenes it was a torrent of emotional pain.

Our review

John & Paul is an elegantly written and original telling of the Beatles’ story, which is as enthralling and astonishing as their music. There are fresh insights for the most seasoned Fab Four fan. Decades after their split, listening to the Beatles can still yield new rewards, and Leslie is an expert listener...

The Extinction of Experience

by Christine Rosen (Bodley Head, £22)

Our interview, The Women’s Orchestra of Auschwitz, Our review, John & Paul: A Love Story in Songs, Our review, The Extinction of Experience, Our review, The Challenges of Democracy, Our review, On the Calculation of Volume (vols 1 and 2), Our review, Base Notes, Our review, Rain of Ruin, Our review, The City Changes its Face, Our review, Unholy Kingdom: Religion, Corruption and Violence in Saudi Arabia, Our review, Don’t Forget We’re Here Forever, Our review, …and the best books to come, Buckley: The Life and the Revolution That Changed America, Electric Spark: The Enigma of Muriel Spark, The Möbius Book, Tunisgrad: Destroying the Axis, 1942-3

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Algorithms will recommend you the perfect restaurant, or, indeed, the perfect book. But to judge by this illuminating study by the academic Christine Rosen, living under an algorithmic spell is making us all coddled and uncreative – something that shouldn’t just be disappointing, but a gigantic cause for alarm.

Our review

The Extinction of Experience doesn’t just rail against algorithm culture: it takes in every facet of how technology has changed human existence and perception over the past 50 years. Rosen wants us to engage via our senses with the world as it is, not via technology with how we wish it to be. That extends to doing things such as travelling without GPS, or not looking at our phones while we wait in a queue...

The Challenges of Democracy

by Jonathan Sumption (Profile, £18.99)

Our interview, The Women’s Orchestra of Auschwitz, Our review, John & Paul: A Love Story in Songs, Our review, The Extinction of Experience, Our review, The Challenges of Democracy, Our review, On the Calculation of Volume (vols 1 and 2), Our review, Base Notes, Our review, Rain of Ruin, Our review, The City Changes its Face, Our review, Unholy Kingdom: Religion, Corruption and Violence in Saudi Arabia, Our review, Don’t Forget We’re Here Forever, Our review, …and the best books to come, Buckley: The Life and the Revolution That Changed America, Electric Spark: The Enigma of Muriel Spark, The Möbius Book, Tunisgrad: Destroying the Axis, 1942-3

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Economic insecurity, intolerance, fear and, in the case of Britain, charlatantry at the top. British democracy seems to be facing the abyss on more than one of these fronts. Thankfully, we have writers of the calibre of leading jurist Jonathan Sumption to tell us where we’ve gone wrong. In these incisive essays, he covers everything from Brexit to the “mendacity” of Boris Johnson.

Our review

Jonathan Sumption is one of our foremost intellectuals: a term that has in some contexts become an insult, but not when applied to him. This book of essays demonstrates the breadth of his perceptions and the originality of his mind. He is known principally as a lawyer and former member of the Supreme Court, but is also an eminent historian, bringing a wider hinterland to his ideas. 

On the Calculation of Volume (vols 1 and 2)

by Solvej Balle, tr Barbara J Haveland (Faber, £10.99)

Our interview, The Women’s Orchestra of Auschwitz, Our review, John & Paul: A Love Story in Songs, Our review, The Extinction of Experience, Our review, The Challenges of Democracy, Our review, On the Calculation of Volume (vols 1 and 2), Our review, Base Notes, Our review, Rain of Ruin, Our review, The City Changes its Face, Our review, Unholy Kingdom: Religion, Corruption and Violence in Saudi Arabia, Our review, Don’t Forget We’re Here Forever, Our review, …and the best books to come, Buckley: The Life and the Revolution That Changed America, Electric Spark: The Enigma of Muriel Spark, The Möbius Book, Tunisgrad: Destroying the Axis, 1942-3

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When Danish author Solvej Balle published the first volume of her seven-part series about Tara, a woman who falls through the cracks of time and is forced to live through the same day over and over, it became a word-of-mouth “sensation” in her native land. Now two of them arrive in English translation for a new wealth of readers: make sure you’re one of them.

Our review

Part of the pleasure of reading these two books is to watch and see whether Balle can pull it off; whether she can hold your attention in what could, for obvious reasons, become a tedious story – and despite losing a little momentum in the second volume, she almost completely does...

Base Notes

by Adelle Stripe (White Rabbit, £20)

Our interview, The Women’s Orchestra of Auschwitz, Our review, John & Paul: A Love Story in Songs, Our review, The Extinction of Experience, Our review, The Challenges of Democracy, Our review, On the Calculation of Volume (vols 1 and 2), Our review, Base Notes, Our review, Rain of Ruin, Our review, The City Changes its Face, Our review, Unholy Kingdom: Religion, Corruption and Violence in Saudi Arabia, Our review, Don’t Forget We’re Here Forever, Our review, …and the best books to come, Buckley: The Life and the Revolution That Changed America, Electric Spark: The Enigma of Muriel Spark, The Möbius Book, Tunisgrad: Destroying the Axis, 1942-3

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Do you remember how you smelled at the key moments of your life? Adelle Stripe does, and she relates them beautifully in this unconventional memoir. It covers everything from her childhood to her mother’s death, and it’s related through the lens of the perfumes she wore along the way.

Our review

Stripe doesn’t merely state that she, or someone else, wears a certain scent at a certain time. Perfume’s work here is synaptic: it connects people and longings, ambition and failure, love and death. Overripe apricot and heliotrope in Lancôme Trésor mingles with the blood of a newborn calf and the savoury powder of Pasta ’n’ Sauce; the eerie ambergris calm of Dior Dune echoes in the hospital room where Stripe’s mother lies dying, the last vestige of her former glamour...

Rain of Ruin

by Richard Overy (Allen Lane, £25)

Our interview, The Women’s Orchestra of Auschwitz, Our review, John & Paul: A Love Story in Songs, Our review, The Extinction of Experience, Our review, The Challenges of Democracy, Our review, On the Calculation of Volume (vols 1 and 2), Our review, Base Notes, Our review, Rain of Ruin, Our review, The City Changes its Face, Our review, Unholy Kingdom: Religion, Corruption and Violence in Saudi Arabia, Our review, Don’t Forget We’re Here Forever, Our review, …and the best books to come, Buckley: The Life and the Revolution That Changed America, Electric Spark: The Enigma of Muriel Spark, The Möbius Book, Tunisgrad: Destroying the Axis, 1942-3

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Richard Overy, one of the world’s leading war historians, has a bold view of how the Second World War came to an end: the atomic bomb had very little to do with it. As his pacy study of the summer of 1945 shows, far more was at play behind Hirohito’s fateful decisions than America’s superweapon.

Our review

Overy explores the confused Japanese decision-making that drew out the population’s suffering, and ends with a striking observation: only in 2016 did the US Department of Defense ‘finally [spell] out that attacking a civilian population to undermine morale [is] no longer legally acceptable’…

The City Changes its Face

by Eimear McBride (Faber, £20)

Our interview, The Women’s Orchestra of Auschwitz, Our review, John & Paul: A Love Story in Songs, Our review, The Extinction of Experience, Our review, The Challenges of Democracy, Our review, On the Calculation of Volume (vols 1 and 2), Our review, Base Notes, Our review, Rain of Ruin, Our review, The City Changes its Face, Our review, Unholy Kingdom: Religion, Corruption and Violence in Saudi Arabia, Our review, Don’t Forget We’re Here Forever, Our review, …and the best books to come, Buckley: The Life and the Revolution That Changed America, Electric Spark: The Enigma of Muriel Spark, The Möbius Book, Tunisgrad: Destroying the Axis, 1942-3

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Eimear McBride won acclaim for her riddling and stylish 2013 debut novel, A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing – and the Irish writer returns to that top form with her dazzling fourth work of fiction, The City Changes Its Face. It takes us back to the 1990s and the sticky-floored Camden pubs of another novel, The Lesser Bohemians (2016), and in its tale of love, trauma and guilt, it practically radiates emotion.

Our review

“Inhabiting” a work of art has become a cliché, but it’s refreshing to know with The City Changes its Face that doing so might require you to deploy at least half of the considerable intellect it took its author to write it. A lapse in patience or an unwillingness to go with the current of each sentence isn’t a good enough excuse to neglect how exquisitely illuminated the world becomes through such a lens.

Unholy Kingdom: Religion, Corruption and Violence in Saudi Arabia

by Malise Ruthven (Verso, £25)

Our interview, The Women’s Orchestra of Auschwitz, Our review, John & Paul: A Love Story in Songs, Our review, The Extinction of Experience, Our review, The Challenges of Democracy, Our review, On the Calculation of Volume (vols 1 and 2), Our review, Base Notes, Our review, Rain of Ruin, Our review, The City Changes its Face, Our review, Unholy Kingdom: Religion, Corruption and Violence in Saudi Arabia, Our review, Don’t Forget We’re Here Forever, Our review, …and the best books to come, Buckley: The Life and the Revolution That Changed America, Electric Spark: The Enigma of Muriel Spark, The Möbius Book, Tunisgrad: Destroying the Axis, 1942-3

Unholy

It’s no surprise to read that Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler is narcissistic, peremptory and utterly brutal. But as Malise Ruthven’s damning exposé proves, the true evil of Mohammed bin Salman’s regime may be far more chilling than you thought.

Our review

It’s a stretch to argue, as Ruthven does, that the kingdom’s new interest in sport might substitute for religious fervour. But it’s true that millions of petrodollars have been poured into sporting businesses like football and golf. Saudi will host the 2034 football World Cup and has used its LIV golf project to effectively buy into the PGA tour…

Don’t Forget We’re Here Forever

by Lamorna Ash

Our interview, The Women’s Orchestra of Auschwitz, Our review, John & Paul: A Love Story in Songs, Our review, The Extinction of Experience, Our review, The Challenges of Democracy, Our review, On the Calculation of Volume (vols 1 and 2), Our review, Base Notes, Our review, Rain of Ruin, Our review, The City Changes its Face, Our review, Unholy Kingdom: Religion, Corruption and Violence in Saudi Arabia, Our review, Don’t Forget We’re Here Forever, Our review, …and the best books to come, Buckley: The Life and the Revolution That Changed America, Electric Spark: The Enigma of Muriel Spark, The Möbius Book, Tunisgrad: Destroying the Axis, 1942-3

Don't Forget We're Here Forever by Lamorna Ash

If, when you imagine Generation Z, you envisage a group of apathetic nihilists, then Lamorna Ash will open your eyes. In this elegantly written work of non-fiction, she travels around Britain to see how our young people turned back to religion, exploring everything from Quaker meetings to monastic communities on the Hebridean Isles. We read a lot of waffle about “the youth today”, and what they do (or don’t) believe: Ash paints a fascinating, and more realistic, picture.

Our review

Rather than crunch more numbers, Lamorna Ash decided to find out for herself what’s happening to Christianity in Britain. As someone on the border between Gen Z and the millennials – Ash is 29 – she kept discovering young people trying to find God by giving Christianity a shot...

…and the best books to come

Buckley: The Life and the Revolution That Changed America

by Sam Tanenhaus

Our interview, The Women’s Orchestra of Auschwitz, Our review, John & Paul: A Love Story in Songs, Our review, The Extinction of Experience, Our review, The Challenges of Democracy, Our review, On the Calculation of Volume (vols 1 and 2), Our review, Base Notes, Our review, Rain of Ruin, Our review, The City Changes its Face, Our review, Unholy Kingdom: Religion, Corruption and Violence in Saudi Arabia, Our review, Don’t Forget We’re Here Forever, Our review, …and the best books to come, Buckley: The Life and the Revolution That Changed America, Electric Spark: The Enigma of Muriel Spark, The Möbius Book, Tunisgrad: Destroying the Axis, 1942-3

Buckley: The Life and the Revolution That Changed America by Sam Tanenhaus

Through spats over civil rights, Communism and the opinions of Gore Vidal, William F Buckley Jr became one of the pre-eminent figures in post-war American conservatism. Sam Tanenhaus was chosen, before Buckley’s 2008 death, to write his authorised biography: this colossal work will shed light not only on how the Right ended up in hock to Donald Trump, but how one charismatic writer exerted so much influence on the way conservatives approach public debate. Tanenhaus’s book has a US publisher, but not a UK one yet: Britain, a country downstream of American politics, could do with picking it up.

Random House US, June 3, £33

Electric Spark: The Enigma of Muriel Spark

by Frances Wilson

Our interview, The Women’s Orchestra of Auschwitz, Our review, John & Paul: A Love Story in Songs, Our review, The Extinction of Experience, Our review, The Challenges of Democracy, Our review, On the Calculation of Volume (vols 1 and 2), Our review, Base Notes, Our review, Rain of Ruin, Our review, The City Changes its Face, Our review, Unholy Kingdom: Religion, Corruption and Violence in Saudi Arabia, Our review, Don’t Forget We’re Here Forever, Our review, …and the best books to come, Buckley: The Life and the Revolution That Changed America, Electric Spark: The Enigma of Muriel Spark, The Möbius Book, Tunisgrad: Destroying the Axis, 1942-3

Electric Spark: The Enigma of Muriel Spark by Frances Wilson

Evelyn Waugh thought she was a saint, Bernard Levin said she was a witch, and she described herself as “Muriel the Marvel with her X-ray eyes”. So, who really was Muriel Spark? Frances Wilson tackles the author of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie in this fascinating new biography, which focuses on the writer’s early years in the 1940s and 1950s. Her array of experiences includes espionage, divorce, murder, poverty and a grand religious conversion, to name just a few.

Bloomsbury, June 5, £25

The Möbius Book

by Catherine Lacey

Our interview, The Women’s Orchestra of Auschwitz, Our review, John & Paul: A Love Story in Songs, Our review, The Extinction of Experience, Our review, The Challenges of Democracy, Our review, On the Calculation of Volume (vols 1 and 2), Our review, Base Notes, Our review, Rain of Ruin, Our review, The City Changes its Face, Our review, Unholy Kingdom: Religion, Corruption and Violence in Saudi Arabia, Our review, Don’t Forget We’re Here Forever, Our review, …and the best books to come, Buckley: The Life and the Revolution That Changed America, Electric Spark: The Enigma of Muriel Spark, The Möbius Book, Tunisgrad: Destroying the Axis, 1942-3

The Möbius Book by Catherine Lacey

Catherine Lacey has been climbing up the literary ladder ever since her magnificent debut novel, No One is Ever Missing (2014). Soon followed Pew (2020), and last year Biography of X, an archive-thick account of a notorious American artist who never existed. Now comes The Möbius Book, a hybrid fiction-memoir written in the wake of a brutal breakup. Lacey was named as one of Granta’s Best Young American Novelists in 2017, and rightly so – this new one runs the emotional gamut.

Granta, June 19, £16.99

Tunisgrad: Destroying the Axis, 1942-3

by Saul David

Our interview, The Women’s Orchestra of Auschwitz, Our review, John & Paul: A Love Story in Songs, Our review, The Extinction of Experience, Our review, The Challenges of Democracy, Our review, On the Calculation of Volume (vols 1 and 2), Our review, Base Notes, Our review, Rain of Ruin, Our review, The City Changes its Face, Our review, Unholy Kingdom: Religion, Corruption and Violence in Saudi Arabia, Our review, Don’t Forget We’re Here Forever, Our review, …and the best books to come, Buckley: The Life and the Revolution That Changed America, Electric Spark: The Enigma of Muriel Spark, The Möbius Book, Tunisgrad: Destroying the Axis, 1942-3

Tunisgrad: Destroying the Axis, 1942-3 by Saul David

Most historians recognise the 1943 Nazi defeat at Stalingrad as a defining moment – but what about the Axis defeat in North Africa? Saul David’s learned account of the battle aims to reinstate the Tunisian campaign in the history books: after all, it ended Axis power in the Mediterranean and led to the surrender of over 250,000 German and Italian troops. Such was the scale of their defeat that the German public wryly dubbed it “Tunisgrad” – and so gave David his perfect title.

William Collins, Sept 11, £25

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