10 books we'll be reading in 2025
Whether it’s a moving memoir, epic family saga or thrilling natural disaster novel, these are the books to pre-order now
Words: Aobh O'Brien-Moody
2025 is shaping up to be an epic year for readers of fiction and non-fiction alike, with exciting new book releases across every genre, from incisive essay collections to transportative novels (essential in these precarious times). Below, our pick of the titles to keep an eye out for in the coming months.
Source Code: My Beginnings by Bill Gates
Bill Gates, one of the modern age’s most impactful figures, brings us right back to the beginning in his new memoir Source Code. From his childhood in Seattle to the earliest signs of his phenomenal business acumen, Gates’ origin story offers readers an insight into his energy and ambition.
Release date: 4 February, 2025
We Do Not Part by Han Kang
2024 Nobel Prize winner and acclaimed author of The Vegetarian Han Kang is back with her latest novel, We Do Not Part. Set in contemporary South Korea, it traces the path of Kyungha as she travels from the city of Seoul into the forests of Jeju Island, to the home of her old friend Inseon. Bold and revelatory, the novel explores history, trauma and the importance of remembering.
Release date: 6 February, 2025
The Message by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Ta-Nehisi Coates is one of the 21st century’s most important writers, and his latest book only hammers that fact home harder. The Message is a timely and urgent piece of non-fiction inspired by Coates’ journeys to three sites of conflict – Dakar, South Carolina, and Palestine, Examining truth, mythology, tragedy and liberation, it’s an exploration of how the stories we tell, and the ones we don’t, shape our realities.
Release date: 6 February, 2025
Mothers and Sons by Adam Haslett
Adam Haslett’s Mothers and Sons is an epic family saga that captures the complex and painful relationship between an estranged mother and son in contemporary America. Exploring love, guilt and fear, it’s a deeply moving and highly acute portrait of a family in crisis.
Release date: 6 February, 2025
Dream Count by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
The award-winning author of Americanah returns with a searing new novel that was ten years in the making. Dream Count tells the story of four women and their loves, longings and desires; begging questions about happiness, love and the choices we make and those made for us.
Release date: 4 March, 2025
Tilt by Emma Pattee
Taking place over the course of a single day, Tilt imagines the long-anticipated Cascadia Earthquake and its impact on 37-week-pregnant Annie, who is shopping in Ikea when her city of Portland, and the entire Pacific Northwest, is dismantled. Emma Pattee’s debut novel is a compulsive, nail-biting read about how the foundations of our lives are built and shaken.
Release date: 13 March, 2025
Eden’s Shore by Oisín Fagan
Set towards the close of the eighteenth century, Eden’s Shore follows Irishman Angel Kelly as he sets sail from Liverpool with the intention of starting a Utopian commune in Brazil. But when a mutiny takes place on the ship, he finds himself stranded upon the coast of a Spanish colony in Latin America and becomes unwittingly caught up in a deadly game of cat-and-mouse between empires. A tale of greed, revenge and love from one of Ireland’s best young writers.
Release date: 10 April, 2025
The Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong
Ocean Vuong’s latest novel follows the unlikely friendship between nineteen-year-old Hai and elderly widow Grazina. A story about second chances, chosen family and what it means to exist on the fringes of society, this book is at once haunting and hopeful.
Release date: 15 May, 2025
Homework: A Memoir by Geoff Dyer
Geoff Dyer’s Homework charts the writer’s coming-of-age amidst a changing England in the 1960s and 1970s. From childhood conkers competitions to teenage gig-goings and romantic tribulations, Dyer captures an immersive portrait of an intensely transformative time – for himself, as well as British society at large.
Release date: 10 June, 2025
Authority: Essays on Being Right by Andrea Long Chu
Pulitzer Prize–winning critic Andrea Long Chu marries wit and clarity in her latest essay collection Authority, which begs the questions, how do we decide what's good, and how do we convince others that our judgement is correct? Prepare to be challenged by one of today’s most original thinkers.
Release date: 7 August, 2025
Read last year's list of the books we couldn't wait to get our hands on...
Become a Gentleman’s Journal Member?
Like the Gentleman’s Journal? Why not join the Clubhouse, a special kind of private club where members receive offers and experiences from hand-picked, premium brands. You will also receive invites to exclusive events, the quarterly print magazine delivered directly to your door and your own membership card.
