Best Reads of 2025

I love to read and talk about books! Let’s start with my favorite reads of 2025:

Wild, Dark Shore, by Charlotte McConaghy - A mysterious woman washes ashore a remote island near Antartica, inhabited only by a caretaker and his three children. With gorgeous prose, a setting both wild and beautiful, and an intense and propulsive plot, McConaghy reveals her character’s deeply held secrets, as well as the immensity of love of which humans are capable.

The Remembered Soldier, by Anjet Daanje - A soldier suffers amnesia in World War I and lands in a psychiatric hospital. One day a woman recognizes him as her husband and takes him home to rebuild their life. Daanje takes us through their daily rituals - every touch, every glance, every moment of intimacy - each glimmer of returning memory. But as time goes on, our soldier is less and less sure this woman is who she says she is. A brilliant story about love, truth and the bonds of marriage.

The South, by Tash Aw - A young man travels south with his family to an inherited farm that has fallen into disrepair. He is drawn to the farm manager’s son and soon they embark on an intimate relationship. Aw beautifully describes their story, the sexuality and caste systems that divide, and the family, generational ties that bond - for good and for bad.

Flesh by David Szalay - A teenage boy in Hungary suffers sexual trauma at the hands of an older, married woman in his apartment complex. This leads to a succession of events in his life as he grows, from poor to rich to poor, in and out of intimate relationships, but holding everyone at an emotional distance from which he cannot seem to break. Szalay uses spare, “masculine”, brilliant prose to tell this captivating story.