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Get Ready for 2025's Biggest New Book Drops

Anticipated new books by Ocean Vuong, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Isabel Allende, Katie Kitamura, and more.
Get Ready for 2025's Biggest New Book Drops
Get Ready for 2025's Biggest New Book Drops
Tertulia •
Jan 22nd, 2025

While you wait for some of the highly anticipated books coming in 2025, why not revisit the authors' earlier masterworks? From Ocean Vuong’s poetic exploration of love and trauma in On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous to Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s masterpiece Americanah, these timeless books shaped the careers of some of greatest living writers today.


1. Ocean Vuong

Ocean Vuong captivated readers with his debut novel, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, a semi-autobiographical exploration of love, trauma, and identity. A poet at heart, Vuong’s lyrical prose has made him one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary literature. This year, the Vietnamese American author returns with The Emperor of Gladness (out 5/15). Inspired by his time as a fast-food server, this heartfelt story follows a teen and an elderly widow with dementia whose unlikely bond redefines second chances.

While You Wait: Dive into Time is a Mother, his latest poetry collection, to experience Vuong’s stunning poetic style and emotional depth.


2. Katie Kitamura

“Kitamura’s novels are short, sharp, and deadly. I’m not sure there’s anyone better writing in America today,” declared The Guardian in their roundup of fiction to watch in 2025. In Audition (out 4/8), an accomplished actress and an attractive younger man meet for lunch in a Manhattan restaurant. As the encounter unfolds, competing narratives emerge, questioning the roles we play and the truths we conceal.

While You Wait: Read her critically acclaimed Intimacies, a National Book Award nominee and Obama-recommended read, which follows an interpreter navigating the morally complex world of international law while also untangling personal and political betrayals.


3. Curtis Sittenfeld

Curtis Sittenfeld’s breakout 2005 novel Prep is a sharp, unforgettable exploration of identity and class at a prestigious boarding school. Since then, she has written several bestsellers, including American Wife, inspired by former First Lady Laura Bush, and Romantic Comedy, a Reese’s Book Club pick. In 2025, Sittenfeld returns with Show Don't Tell: Stories (out 2/25), a collection of 12 witty tales, including a highly anticipated sequel to Prep, set at an alumni reunion.

While You Wait: Try Prep to see how Sittenfeld first captured readers with her relatable and deeply human characters


4. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

The wait is over: one of the literary world’s brightest stars returns with her first novel in a decade. The bestselling author of Americanah and Half of a Yellow Sun returns in 2025 with Dream Count, (out 3/4) a story of four women navigating love, identity, and resilience during the pandemic. Oprah Daily praises Adichie’s ability to create characters through whom “we can more fully understand ourselves and the networks that connect us all.”

While You Wait: Reread Americanah, Adichie’s modern classic about love, race, and belonging—timely as ever.


5. Abdulrazak Gurnah

The 2021 Nobel laureate’s first novel since winning the prize explores a world in crisis. Theft (out 3/18) follows three young people growing up in Tanzania at the turn of the twenty-first century as they grapple with an uncertain future. “Nobel Prize-winning novelist Gurnah delivers a story whose title reverberates throughout,” praised Kirkus in its starred review. “No word is wasted.”

While You Wait: Dive into Afterlives, where Gurnah weaves a powerful tale of colonialism’s scars and East Africa’s complex history—essential reading from the Nobel laureate.


6. Taylor Jenkins Reid

The bestselling author behind blockbuster novels The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and hit adaptations like Daisy Jones & The Six returns in 2025 with Atmosphere (out 6/3), an epic set during NASA’s 1980s Space Shuttle program. A brilliant scientist chases her dream of spaceflight, discovers unexpected love, and faces a mission that will change everything.

While You Wait: Check out Carrie Soto is Back, a dive into the world of tennis. “Even if you’re not a tennis fan, this novel will grab you,” praised The Washington Post. To craft this tale of ambition and comebacks on the world’s most famous courts, Reid immersed herself in Serena Williams’ MasterClass and Black and White: The Way I See It, written by Williams’ father, "King" Richard Williams.


7. Anne Tyler

With twenty-four novels, including Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant and The Accidental Tourist, Anne Tyler is a staple of American literature. Both were Pulitzer Prize finalists, and Breathing Lessons won the prize in 1989. Her latest, Three Days in June (out 2/11), is a heartwarming dramedy set during a wedding weekend, where a divorced mother navigates the emotional chaos of her daughter’s big day.

While You Wait: Read Breathing Lessons, Tyler’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, for a moving exploration of marriage and memory.


8. S.A. Cosby

Known for his gritty, Southern noir thrillers, S.A. Cosby’s work has redefined the modern crime genre. In 2025, he returns with King of Ashes (out 6/10), a Godfather-inspired epic where a man must confront dangerous gangsters and unravel family secrets to save his brother and their business.

While You Wait: Grab All the Sinners Bleed, an Obama-endorsed Southern caper that won the 2024 Anthony Award for Best Mystery and Crime Novel of the Year.


9. Isabel Allende

Chilean-American writer Isabel Allende is one of the world’s most widely read Spanish-language authors, with fans worldwide eagerly awaiting her next release. My Name Is Emilia del Valle (out 5/6) follows a young writer’s journey to South America to uncover the truth about her father—and herself—amidst a turbulent time of civil war.

While You Wait: Check out The House of the Spirits, Allende’s iconic debut novel, where magic, politics, and love intertwine across generations.


10. Patricia Lockwood

After her critically acclaimed and darkly comical memoir about growing up with a guitar-playing Catholic priest and her Booker-shortlisted debut novel, Patricia Lockwood returns with Will There Ever Be Another You (out 9/23). This pandemic novel transforms her COVID experience into a dazzling exploration of grief, illness, and the search for meaning in a disorienting world.

While You Wait: Read No One Is Talking About This, a Booker Prize finalist and one of The Atlantic's Great American Novels of the past 100 years. This incisive and heartfelt story follows a woman navigating social media fame until a personal tragedy changes everything. Kirkus hails it as “a guide to moving beyond thinking of the internet as separate from real life and art.”

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