The 2025 Kirkus Prize Finalists for Nonfiction

"A thoroughgoing history of the last years of the Pahlavi dynasty and the rise of the Islamist theocracy in Iran... An eye-opening history of how Iran became a point on the “axis of evil” and is considered such a dangerous enemy today." — Kirkus Reviews

"This vibrant new biography...establishes Baldwin as a restless writer who publicly "forced readers to confront the connections between white supremacy, masculinity, and sexuality" while privately seeking the "redemptive power of love" with other men, gay, straight, and bisexual. A dynamic portrait that deepens our understanding of a complex artist." — Kirkus Reviews

"A nimbly told story that should serve as a caution—but oddly, too, as inspiration—to would-be escapists..." — Kirkus Reviews

"An authoritative history of the debates and brutality that made our world." — Kirkus Reviews

"National Book Award winner Perry offers surprising revelations about the connection between the color blue and Black identity as she explores myth and literature, art and music, folklore and film. . . . An innovative cultural history." — Kirkus Reviews

"Booker Prize-winning Indian novelist Arundhati Roy recounts a life of poverty and upheaval, defiance and triumph in an emotionally raw memoir, centered on her complicated relationship with her mother...Her candid memoir revives both an extraordinary woman and the tangled complexities of filial love. An intimate, stirring chronicle." — Kirkus Reviews