Books

The best books of 2025 so far

From urgent new fiction to the inside story of Keir Starmer’s Labour, the New Statesman picks the season’s essential reading.

Latest in Books

In The Unnamable, the writer’s prose was stripped to the bone – and the bone itself boiled white.

By Eimear McBride

From hidden jewels to good eggs, children will be delighted by these funny, moving stories.

By Amanda Craig

The novelist coolly examines how we interact with each other in a deeply unsettling story of reversals and doubles.

By Megan Nolan

The entrepreneur’s microchip company Nvidia has fuelled a tech revolution, but his success is built on failure and suffering.

By Ian Leslie

In Careless People, former employee Sarah Wynn-Williams reveals the callousness at the heart of the company.

By Megan Gibson

Tove Jansson’s beloved stories, which turn 80 this year, are not cute: they are angry tales of apocalypse and breakdown.

By Frances Wilson

Swift is a self-made billionaire and the most profitable live musician in history. What can her ascendance teach us?

By Will Dunn