Barnes & Noble has officially unveiled its Best Fiction Books of 2025, celebrating a year filled with lyrical debuts, long-awaited returns, and stories that reminded readers why they fell in love with reading in the first place.
The retailer calls this year’s selections “the stories that inspired us, transported us and kept us turning pages.” The list spans sweeping historical epics, poetic meditations on identity and even a few surprise reunions with literary legends.
If you’ve been following our coverage of Barnes & Noble’s standout releases — from Katie Yee’s Discover Prize–winning debutMaggie; Or, A Man and a Woman Walk Into a Bar
to Lily King’s October Book Club pick Heart the Lover and Meagan Church’s The Mad Wife, the current Book of the Month — this new lineup brings all of those threads together in one powerhouse year of fiction.
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Highlights From the 2025 Best Fiction List
Mona’s Eyes by Thomas Schlesser (translated by Hildegarde Serle)
This tender debut follows a young girl exploring the art world through museum visits with her grandfather. It’s both a coming-of-age story and a love letter to beauty itself — one of the most emotionally resonant books of the year.
Buckeye (B&N Exclusive Edition) by Patrick Ryan
A sprawling, multigenerational family drama that critics are already comparing to Olive Kitteridge and Middlesex. Set in mid-century Ohio, Buckeye captures the small triumphs and heartbreaks of everyday life with poetic precision.
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Maggie; Or, A Man and a Woman Walk Into a Bar by Katie Yee
Winner of the 2025 Barnes & Noble Discover Prize, Yee’s witty and poignant debut finds humor in heartbreak. It’s a perfect bridge between B&N’s Discover program and its broader Best-of-the-Year recognition — proof that the retailer’s talent-spotting instincts are right on the mark.
The Land of Sweet Forever by Harper Lee (introduction by Casey Cep)
A new collection of stories and essays from the beloved To Kill a Mockingbird author, introduced by her longtime friend Casey Cep. Barnes & Noble’s exclusive edition includes newly unearthed historical material, giving readers fresh insight into Lee’s creative life.
The Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong (Oprah’s Book Club)
Vuong, a poet and photographer known for On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, delivers a lush, emotionally charged novel that blurs the line between prose and poetry. Selected for Oprah’s Book Club, it’s already being hailed as one of the most unforgettable reads of the year.
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A Banner Year for Book Lovers
Several of 2025’s biggest names appear across multiple Barnes & Noble lists. Collectively, B&N’s picks prove the retailer’s editorial team has its finger firmly on the pulse of what readers crave: emotional depth, inventive storytelling and a touch of hope.
This year’s fiction list also welcomes established favorites like Taylor Jenkins Reid, whose Atmosphere: A Love Story imagines an ambitious space-shuttle program through a deeply human lens; Fredrik Backman, returning with My Friends; and Ken Follett, whose Circle of Days dives into the mystery behind Stonehenge.
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Complete List: Barnes & Noble’s Best Fiction of 2025
Mona’s Eyes by Thomas Schlesser
Buckeye by Patrick Ryan
Maggie; Or, A Man and a Woman Walk Into a Bar by Katie Yee
The Land of Sweet Forever by Harper Lee
The Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong
Atmosphere: A Love Story by Taylor Jenkins Reid
My Friends by Fredrik Backman
Circle of Days by Ken Follett
What We Can Know by Ian McEwan
Shadow Ticket by Thomas Pynchon
We Do Not Part by Han Kang
The Artist and the Feast by Lucy Steeds
The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai
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Dream Count by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
The Pretender by Jo Harkin
Twice by Mitch Albom
Audition by Katie Kitamura
The Correspondent by Virginia Evans
Parallel Lines by Edward St. Aubyn
Flashlight by Susan Choi
Kaplan’s Plot by Jason Diamond
I, Medusa by Ayana Gray
Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall
The Director by Daniel Kehlmann
Heart the Lover by Lily King
A Guardian and a Thief by Megha Majumdar
Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy
Wreck by Catherine Newman
We’ll Prescribe You Another Cat by Syou Ishida
Flesh by David Szalay
