15 Small Press Standouts of 2025

As forest fires rage and guests disappear, two women form a tense, unexpected bond in a family-owned hotel on the brink of climate disaster. Publishers Weekly called this haunting story of trust, danger, and resilience “a work of psychological suspense” that imagines “a world that no longer offers respite.”

Fans of the unique and thought-provoking work of Convenience Store Woman and Earthlings will find a new translated novel from the Japanese author, set in a world where sex between married couples has disappeared, and children are born through artificial insemination. “Murata's blunt and bizarre humor is on full display, as is her incisive commentary on contemporary Japan,” praised Publishers Weekly. “This nightmarish fable is impossible to shake.”

Before Francis Picabia and Marcel Duchamp shook up modern art, Gabriële Buffet-Picabia was helping lead the way. Written by her great-granddaughters, this vibrant novel brings to life the daring woman behind the avant-garde. A literary hit in France, now ready to charm U.S. readers.

The latest from the acclaimed Spanish artist and author of When I Sing, Mountains Dance, unfolds in the mystical Guilleries mountains of Catalonia, where a family curse tied to a 400-year-old devil’s bargain echoes through generations of women. “Solà blends lyrical retellings of legends with visceral descriptions of the characters’ maladies,” says Publishers Weekly. “Readers will be transported by this intoxicating tale of resilience.”

Based on the real-life figure of a runaway nun turned conquistador, this wildly inventive novel blurs the lines between history and hallucination. Fleeing the convent and remaking himself as Antonio, the narrator recounts his wild transformations—muleteer, soldier, caretaker—in a lush New World teetering between ruin and hope. “Sensuous and searing,” declared Publishers Weekly. “Readers will be riveted by this queer anticolonial picaresque.”