The Best Books of 2025

The best books of 2025 as selected by Cassie McCullagh, Kate Evans and a panel of bookish guests - Jason Steger, Jon Page and Robert Goodman. Keep scrolling for a full list... GUESTS Jason Steger, arts journalist. Former book editor of the Age & SMH, and panellist on ABC TV’s Book Club Jon Page, long time bookseller with Pages and Pages bookshop, former General Manager of Dymocks Sydney – and now, book-buyer for W.H. Smith Robert Goodman, reviewer and literary judge specialising in genre fiction; regularly reviews for the Newtown Review of Books. His website is pilebythebed.com Jason Steger's Picks On-air: Flesh by David Szalay You Must Remember This by Sean Wilson The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai Long Island by Colm Tóibín My Father Bryce by Adam Courtenay Runt and the Diabolical Dognapping by Craig Silvey Extras: My Sister and Other Lovers by Esther Freud Jon Page's Picks On-air: Buckeye by Patrick Ryan Unbury the Dead by Fiona Hardy Flashlight by Susan Choi I Want Everything by Dominic Amarena One Day Everyone Will Have Been Against This by Omar El Akkad Extras: A Beautiful Family by Jennifer Trevelyan The Body Next Door by Zane Lovitt The Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong The Rose Field [Book of Dust, Vol. 3] by Philip Pullman The Names by Florence Knapp Robert Goodman's Picks On-air: Salvage by Jennifer Mills Picks and Shovels by Cory Doctorow We Do Not Part by Han Kang Eden by Mark Brandi King Sorrow by Joe Hill Shroud by Adrian Tchaikovsky Extras: The Bewitching by Silvia Moreno Garcia Esperance by Adam Oyebanji Where the Axe is Buried by Ray Nayler Perfection by Vincenzo Latronico Lion Hearts by Dan Jones Rapture by Emily Maguire Unbury the Dead by Fiona Hardy The Impossible Thing by Belinda Bauer The Art of a Lie by Laura Shepherd Robinson Hotel Ukraine by Martin Cruz Smith The Hollow Girl by Lynn Yeowart The White Crow by Michael Robotham Stillwater by Tanya Scott The Reunion by Bronwyn Rivers The Peak by Sam Guthrie The Seventh Floor by David McClosky Casualties of Truth by Lauren Francis-Sharma Cassie McCullagh's Picks On-air: Dream State by Eric Puchner Theft by Abdulrazak Gurnah The Transformations by Andrew Pippos Arborescence by Rhett Davis What We Can Know by Ian McEwan On the Calculation of Volume 1 by Solvej Balle Extras: The Silver Book by Olivia Laing Dancing in the Lift by Mandy Sayer Kate Evans' Picks On-air: Mother Mary Come to Me by Arundhati Roy Always Home, Always Homesick by Hannah Kent Memorial Days by Geraldine Brooks The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami The Remembered Soldier by Anjet Daanje Twist by Colum McCann Landfall by James Bradley The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones Fierceland by Omar Musa Chosen Family by Madeleine Gray Extras: On the Calculation of Volume 1 by Solvej Balle We Do Not Part by Han Kang The Wax Child by Olga Ravn Theft by Abdulrazak Gurnah What We Can Know by Ian McEwan Flashlight by Susan Choi I Want Everything by Dominic Amarena CREDITS Presenter, Kate Evans and Cassie McCullagh Producer, Kate Evans and Sarah Corbett Sound engineer, Craig Tilmouth and Tegan Nicholls Arts editor, Rhiannon Brown

The Bookshelf · Australian Broadcasting Corporation