Thrilling debuts to big-name authors: 40 of the most exciting books to read in 2025

From the most anticipated literary debuts to the return of heavyweights like Stephen King and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, there's plenty to add to your TBR pile this year.

This year will be a great one for discovering new talent, with a slew of compelling debut novels on the horizon. Coming early in the year is Catherine Airey's Confessions, which follows three generations of women between Ireland and New York – including a teenager orphaned by the 9/11 terrorist attacks. It's both intimate and ambitious, tackling issues including sexual violence, abortion and the immigrant experience. Airey quit her job in London and moved to West Cork – from where her grandmother hails – to write the book. It's not the only exciting debut to come out of Ireland this year. The golden age of Irish fiction is turning into a gold rush, with many of this year's most intriguing debuts coming from the Emerald Isle.

Garrett Carr's The Boy from the Sea starts when a baby boy is found abandoned on the beach of an Irish coastal town in the 1970s, and taken in by a local fisherman. It's a big story about a small community, told in the communal voice of the town. Meanwhile award-winning Irish poet Seán Hewitt's debut novel Open, Heaven is a story about the agony and ecstasy of first love, set in the rural north of England, and has already attracted glowing praise from writers including Anne Enright, Kaveh Akbar and Helen MacDonald.

Belfast-based Wendy Erskine has already shown herself to have an exceptional gift for finding the profound in the everyday through her two short story collections. Her first novel, The Benefactors (June), follows three women whose lives become intertwined when their 18-year-old sons are accused of sexual assault, and they leverage all of their privilege to protect them. Also making the leap from acclaimed short story writer to novelist is Roisin O'Donnell, whose debut Nesting (January) is about a young mother trying to start over after fleeing an abusive relationship. Other debuts to watch out for include Lorraine Hegarty's Fair Play - which turns the murder mystery conceit on its head – and Elaine Garvey's The Wardrobe Department, a coming-of-age tale about a young Irish woman working in a London theatre.

Florence Knapp's first novel The Names (May) was the subject of a frenzied bidding war on both sides of the Atlantic. A sliding doors story, it follows three versions of a life, each shaped by the name a mother gives to her son – and explores how a single decision can have monumental ripple effects. The Lamb by Lucy Rose (January) offers something darker – a folk-horror meets coming of age story about a girl who lives in the woods with her cannibal mother. Meanwhile Adam Kay – whose memoir about his days as a junior doctor, This is Going to Hurt, sold more than one million copies and spawned a TV adaptation starring Ben Whishaw – stays in the medical world for his debut novel, A Particularly Nasty Case, out in the autumn.

A lot has happened since Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie published her last novel, Americanah, more than a decade ago - including the author being sampled on Beyoncé's song Flawless. Her long-awaited return to the fiction shelves this March is sure to be one of the publishing events of the year, with Dream Count exploring the lives of four Nigerian women during the pandemic.

Taylor Jenkins Reid – author of the best-selling Daisy Jones and The Six – loves revisiting past decades in her books, and her next, Atmosphere, out in June, is set against the backdrop of the 1980s Space Shuttle program. It's likely to be spotted on many sun-loungers this summer. As will the latest from Emily Henry, whose romance novels have sold more than 10 million copies. Her newest, Great Big Beautiful Life, is out in April.

Stephen King famously writes every single day, and it certainly pays off – he's published more than 70 books. His latest, Never Flinch, due in May, is a crime thriller featuring his recurring character Holly Gibney. Another prolific writer, Anne Tyler, releases her 25th novel in February. Three Days in June follows one woman across her daughter's wedding weekend. Richard Osman is also fast establishing a meaty back catalogue - in the autumn he returns with the fifth (in five years) installment of his Thursday Murder Club series.

This year will see new titles from several authors who made a big impression with their last books. Those hoping they can follow up that success include Natasha Brown, whose debut Assembly topped many best-of-year lists in 2021. Her second, Universality (March), which explores the consequences of a journalist's viral long read, looks to be just as fêted. Also out that month is Torrey Peters' Stag Dance, the follow up to Detransition, Baby – which won the 2021 PEN/Hemingway award for debut fiction. Her new book explores trans lives past, present and future in four interconnected stories.

Ocean Vuong's 2019 debut On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous was a huge hit with both critics and on TikTok. He returns this spring with The Emperor of Gladness (May), the story of an unlikely friendship between a 19-year-old man and an elderly widow.

In the summer there's another sequel to Irvine Welsh's Trainspotting. Whereas 2001's Porno followed Renton, Spud, Sick Boy and Begbie 10 years after the original book, and 2018's Dead Men's Trousers the period after that (a prequel, Skagboys, was also published in 2012), Men In Love skips back in time to pick up events directly after the end of 1993's cult classic. The boys are trying their best to drop the drugs and find romance instead. Don't expect a sentimental love story from Welsh, though. Talking of sequels, Glyph, the sister novel to Ali Smith's dystopian 2024 novel Gliff, will be out in the autumn.

A new title from Curtis Sittenfeld, author of American Wife, Prep and Romantic Comedy, is always something to look forward to, and this year she's treating us to a new collection of short stories called Show Don't Tell (February).

It might be the start of the year, but many 2025 books are already causing a splash in literary circles. In February, Eimear McBride, whose bold debut A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing scooped awards including The Women's Prize for Fiction, returns with her fourth book. The City Changes Its Face is the story of an intense love affair set in 1990s London. Another celebrated Irish writer, Colum McCann, has a new novel out in March. Twist sees a journalist sent to investigate a network of cables deep under the sea.

David Szalay's Flesh (March) follows a teenage boy throughout decades of his life, from growing up in communist Hungary to immense wealth in London. It's already being called a masterpiece, attracting early praise from authors including Samantha Harvey, Rachel Kushner and David Nicholls.

Katie Kitamura counts Barack Obama among her fans, and has quietly built a reputation as one of America's best contemporary writers. In April she follows up her acclaimed last novel Intimacies with Audition, about a theatre actress whose life is upended after she meets a younger man for lunch.

In May you can look forward to Eric Puchner's Dream State, a gorgeous, gripping epic that chronicles 50 years of change in friendships, families and the surrounding landscape. It's being hailed by some as the next great American novel. Also out in May is the latest from Edward St Aubyn, author of the Patrick Melrose novels. He returns with Parallel Lines, a tale of several very different characters whose fates collide.

Recent years have seen a trend for authors reinventingold classics, such as Percival Everett's James and Barbara Kingsolver's Demon Copperhead. In The Housekeeper, out in the autumn, Rose Tremain explores the inspiration behind Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca. A film adaptation, starring Uma Thurman and Anthony Hopkins, is already in the works.

Also out in the autumn, Damian Barr's The Two Roberts is an imagined story inspired by the lifelong love affair of two real-life Scottish artists, Robert Colquhoun and Robert MacBryde, whose contemporaries included Lucien Freud and Francis Bacon.

The year kicks off with a publication first: a memoir by a sitting pope. Hope: The Autobiography of Pope Francis, published globally this month, has taken six years to write, and the Pope, now 88, says it is "the story of a journey of hope".

If the pope's memoir turns out to be light on insider gossip, two more books promise to have plenty of it. In March, former Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter publishes When the Going Was Good, in which he recalls life in the glamorous golden age of magazines. Expect name-dropping aplenty. Another New York icon – though one hailing from the UK – is restaurateur Keith McNally, who changed the Manhattan dining scene with legendary spots like The Odeon, Minetta Tavern and Balthazar. He's also lived a pretty extraordinary life, from time as a child actor to a devastating stroke a few years ago. McNally isn't shy of expressing his opinions on social media, so let's hope he lets rip in his book, too. Promisingly titled I Regret Everything, it's due in May.

Both Bill and Melinda Gates have memoirs out this year. In The Next Day (April), Melinda Gates reflects on how she navigated some of the biggest changes in her life, while in Source Code (Feb), her ex-husband goes back to his youth, recalling how he first fell in love with computers – and the events that preceded his enormous success.

It might seem like there's nothing left to write about The Beatles, but Ian Leslie's John and Paul: A Love Story in Songs (March), promises a compelling and comprehensive exploration the Lennon/McCartney story, told through 23 of their songs.

With a title inspired by a classic Fab Four track, September sees Booker-prize-winning novelist Arundhati Roy publish her first memoir, Mother Mary Comes To Me, which will focus on her complex relationship with her late mother. The autumn will also see a raft of big-name celebrity memoirs, including titles from Sylvester Stallone, Lionel Richie and the second part of Cher's life story.

Far removed from the showbiz world, this year sees a courageous book from the late Ukrainian writer Victoria Amelina. Amelina went from novelist to war reporter when Russia invaded her home country in 2022. Tragically, she was killed by a missile attack in July 2023, aged 37, but her photographs, diaries and interviews with women caught up in the conflict have been collected in Looking at Women Looking at War: A War and Justice Diary (February), along with a forward written by Margaret Atwood.

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