In 2025 we published twelve new titles and saw some great prize wins for our books. It was also the year that we published more poetry than ever before, with Kim Hyesoon’s prize-winning collection Autobiography of Death; a trilogy of books reckoning with the legacies of violence and injustice in Korea by National Book Award-winning poet and translator Don Mee Choi; and the first English translation of a key text in Hindi modernist poetry: Magadh by Shrikant Verma, translated by Rahul Soni. Keep an eye out for more incredible poetry in 2026. One last honourable mention goes to SJ Kim and This Part is Silent, which saw unforgettable launch events this year at bookshops across the country. This support and enthusiasm from bookshops can be seen in how many have picked it as their book of the year.
What a year of publishing and reading it’s been! Critics and booksellers certainly agree and below you’ll find the titles that made a host of best-of-2025 lists. We’re so proud to see our books highlighted by these fantastic newspapers, magazines, and bookstores. And we look forward to another year of books, reading, and community in 2026!
Heart Lamp by Banu Mushtaq (tr. Deepa Bhasthi)
Waterstones Paperbacks of the Year 2025
Chicago Public Library Best of the Best Books
This Part is Silent by SJ Kim
First Draft Devon’s books of 2025
Polly Barton’s books of 2025
Top 5 bestsellers from indie presses at Bookhaus, Bristol
Dreaming of Dead People by Rosalind Belben
Camilla Grudova’s best of the year list
Rough Ghosts books of the year
Storysmith Bristol’s books of the year
Magadh by Shrikant Verma (tr. Rahul Soni)
Fitzcarraldo Editions books of the year
Night of the Living Rez by Morgan Talty
Bard Books London’s Gift Guide
All the Lights by Clemens Meyer
‘A collection of 15 short stories about the underside of German society by an author twice nominated for the International Booker Prize. There are gamblers and boxers, homeless drifters and night-shift workers, in these closely observed snapshots of precarity which, despite the bleakness, are filled with grace and empathy.’
Ángel Gurría Quintana, Financial Times‘ Best Books of 2025