Love reading? Euronews Culture’s guide to the books of 2025

We’ve rounded up a bumper year for books that saw Sally Rooney deliver on the hype with ‘Intermezzo’, award-winning releases from Percival Everett and Samantha Harvey, alongside Richard Flanagan’s multidisciplinary talent recognised with his non-fiction work ‘Question 7’.

Turning the page onto 2025, there’s plenty to be excited about for bookaholics. New releases are coming from multiple Nobel Prize winners, finales are coming for beloved fantasy franchises, and there are follow-up books from newly discovered talent.

Here are Euronews Culture’s most-anticipated books for 2025 in order of release date:

Hope: The Autobiography – Pope Francis

Kicking off the list is a first in history. ‘Hope’ is the first time a Pope has published an autobiography. Pope Francis, who ascended to the throne of the Holy See in 2013, has written a memoir that shares both anecdotes from his life and his musings on the most trying issues of our era. Originally intended to be published after his death, the “needs of our times” have pushed him to release it now.

‘Hope: The Autobiography’ will be released on 14 January

Onyx Storm – Rebecca Yarros

For fantasy series lovers, the chances of GRR Martin finally releasing the next Game of Thrones book ‘The Winds of Winter’ diminishes with each passing year. Instead, they’ll be excited to know that Rebecca Yarros is set to publish the third part in her Empyrean series. Yarros’ sultry tale of dragons started with the surprise BookTok hit ‘Fourth Wing’ released in 2023, followed by last year’s ‘Iron Flame’, and now this quick follow up third entry.

‘Onyx Storm’ will be released on 21 January

Love in Exile – Shon Faye

British journalist Shon Faye’s 2021 non-fiction work ‘The Transgender Issue’ was a bestseller for its clear argument on why trans liberation would benefit society as a whole. She follows up her first book with ‘Love in Exile’, another non-fiction work, this time focused on Faye’s experience of pursuing love.

‘Love in Exile’ will be released on 6 February

We Do Not Part – Han Kang

Last year, South Korean author Han Kang won the Nobel Prize in Literature, becoming the first Asian woman to win the prize. Following her historic victory is the English translation of her 2021 novel ‘We Do Not Part’, translated from Korean by Emily Yae Won and Paige Aniyah Morris. It deals with the traumatic memories of the 1948 Jeju Uprising massacre and won the Prix Médicis Étranger for its French translation in 2023 already.

‘We Do Not Part’ will be released on 6 February

The City Changes its Face – Eimear McBride

Irish novelist Eimear McBride is best known for her stream-of-consciousness debut ‘A Girl Is a Half-formed Thing’ released in 2013, but it’s the central characters of her lyrical follow-up novel ‘The Lesser Bohemians’ who she is returning to with her upcoming novel ‘The City Changes its Face’. In the first, 18-year-old Ellie falls in love with the 39-year-old Stephen in 90s London. Now, McBride will reflect on how the relationship changed the pair.

‘The City Changes its Face’ will be released on 13 February

Resistance – Steve McQueen

Turner Prize-winning artist and Oscar-winning filmmaker Steve McQueen turns his multi-talented hand to books with ‘Resistance’, a 100-year dissection of protesting in Britain. With photos that track the century from the radical suffrage movement in 1903 to the Iraq War protests in 2003, the book will accompany an exhibition by Turner Contemporary of these historic images.

‘Resistance’ will be released on 13 February

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Dream Count – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

‘We Should All Be Feminists’ writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is poised to release her first fiction novel in over a decade with ‘Dream Count’. The novel follows four female narratives, centred on Chiamaka, a Nigerian travel writer living in America. Through them, Adichie expounds on the difficulties chasing love and the choices we make in life.

‘Dream Count’ will be released on 4 March

Stag Dance – Torrey Peters

Torrey Peters’ debut novel ‘Detransition, Baby’ was one of 2021’s highlights for its acerbically witty tale of love triangles, transitioning, and child rearing. Peters was subject to transphobic abuse when she was nominated for the Women’s Prize for Fiction. Her new work is a collection including a novel and three short stories that range from gender-questioning lumberjacks to secret Quaker romances and Las Vegas benders.

‘Stag Dance’ will be released on 11 March

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The Emperor of Gladness – Ocean Vuong

After a few years establishing himself as a striking new voice in poetry, Ocean Vuong astonished critics with his debut novel ‘On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous’ in 2019. For his second novel, the Vietnamese American writer explores the unusual relationship that forms when an elderly widow saves a teenage boy from a suicide attempt. If his first novel left few dry eyes by the final pages, expect something similar from ‘The Emperor of Gladness’ when it releases later this year.

‘The Emperor of Gladness’ will be released on 15 May

The Possession – Annie Ernaux

After you’re done reading the new translation of 2024’s Nobel Prize winner Han Kang, you can slide on over to the latest English translation of 2022’s Nobel Prize winner Annie Ernaux. The French writer is known for her incisive approach to memory, blending it with earnest philosophical prose. ‘The Possession’ was first released as ‘L’Occupation’ in 2002, finally bringing Ernaux’s short but searing insight on jealousy over former lovers to the English language.

‘The Possession’ will be released on 22 May

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Men in Love – Irvine Welsh

Few believed that there would ever be a sequel to the iconic 90s film Trainspotting until Danny Boyle reunited the old cast for his 2017 film T2 Trainspotting. Now it’s the turn of the novel’s author Irvine Welsh to revisit his cohort of loveable junkie renegades. Welsh has tackled what happened to his cast of skagheads a decade after ‘Trainspotting’ as in the Boyle sequel with his novel ‘Porno’ but ‘Men in Love’ takes place immediately after the events of the first book. Now Renton, Spud, Sick Boy and Begbie are looking to put the heroin behind them and focus on romance.

‘Men in Love’ will be released on 2 July

Katabasis – RF Kuang

RF Kuang follows up 2023’s literary phenomenon ‘Yellowface’ with a return to her more fantastical style that she established with her earlier novels ‘Babel’ and ‘The Poppy War’. ‘Katabasis’ – the Greek term for a descent into the underworld – is a clear dip into Kuang’s BookTok-friendly dark academia aesthetic, following two Cambridge University rivals as they travel to hell to save their supervisor.

‘Katabasis’ will be released on 28 August

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