There are so many wonderful books being published in 2025. Here are a few that the Akoya team are looking forward to reading over the course of the year:

                                                                            

The Loves of my Life: A Sex Memoir by Edmund White - January, Bloomsbury

In The Loves of my Life, Edmund White reflects on the pivotal role that sex has played in his life and work, offering an honest and vivid account of his experiences - from the repressed 1950s to the hedonistic 1970s and beyond. With his trademark wit and candor, this memoir further solidifies Edmund White’s place as a central figure in the gay literary canon.

The Choreic Period by Latif Askia Ba  - January, Milkweed Editions

The Choreic Period is a groundbreaking collection of poems by Latif Askia Ba - a Senegalese American poet with cerebral palsy - that explores disability, movement, and the body through a unique blend of languages and rhythmic innovation. These poems create space to practice a radical reclamation of movement and the body, and encourages readers to “relinquish the things that we have. And mark the thing that we do,” all to see and sing the vital “thing that we be.”

Dengue Boy by Michel Nieva (Trans. Rahul Bery) - February, Profile Books

The year is 2272 and the Patagonian archipelagos are the only habitable places on Earth. As the world collapses, Dengue Boy - a humanoid mosquito - searches for his purpose, while adults waste the last of Earth's resources and children escape into virtual realities. In Dengue Boy, Michel Nieva blends body horror and cyberpunk to deliver an extraordinary portrait of a demented future in his first work to be translated into English. 

We Do Not Part by Han Kang (Trans. e. yaewon & Paige Aniyah Morris) - February, Hamish Hamilton 

Kyungha travels from Seoul to Jeju Island to care for her friend Inseon’s bird, navigating a snowstorm and uncovering a dark family history tied to a massacre from seventy years prior.  In We Do Not Part, Nobel Prize-winning author Han Kang creates a hymn to friendship, a eulogy to the imagination and above all an indictment against forgetting.

 

Hidden Portraits: The Untold Stories of Six Women Who Loved Picasso by Sue Roe - March, Faber & Faber

Hidden Portraits explores the remarkable lives of six women—Fernande Olivier, Olga Khokhlova, Marie-Therese Walter, Dora Maar, Francoise Gilot, and Jacqueline Roque—who were crucial to Picasso’s life and art, yet often dismissed as mere muses. Sue Roe delves into their unconventional, independent and talented lives and the ways they influenced Picasso.

The Accidentals by Guadalupe Nettel (Trans. Rosaline Harvey) - April, Fitzcarraldo

The protagonists of the eight stories in The Accidentals each find the ordinary courses of their lives disrupted by an unexpected event and are pushed into unfamiliar terrain. From fractured families to strained relationships, the International Booker-shortlisted duo Guadalupe Nettel and Rosalind Harvey blend the real and the fantastical, exploring the disquieting consequences of unforeseen changes.

Audition by Katie Kitamura - April, Fern Press 

In Audition, an accomplished actress and a troubled young man meet for lunch in Manhattan.   Through two competing narratives, Katie Kitamura dissects the roles we play in our lives—partner, parent, creator, muse—and the hidden truths behind our performances.

Sunstruck by William Rayfet Hunter - May, Merky Books 

A young man is drawn into the world of the wealthy Blake family during a summer in the South of France, where he becomes captivated by Felix. As desire grows and secrets unravel, the two men are tormented by their own demons and their bond is pulled apart at the seams. An Observer Best New Novelist 2025,  William Rayfet Hunter explores race, status, and the sacrifices we make in love in his debut novel Sunstruck. The story explores race, status, and the sacrifices we make in love, leading to profound changes in their lives and the future of those around them.

Lifeblood: A Mother in Search of Hope by Mina Holland - June, Daunt Books

Lifeblood is a raw and moving memoir about Mina Holland's journey caring for her daughter, Vida, who was diagnosed with the rare and life-threatening blood disorder Diamond Blackfan Anaemia at birth. Through this transformative experience, Mina and her family learned to navigate unexpected challenges with love, hope and resilience, embracing the preciousness of the present.

Awake in the Floating City by Susanna Kwan - July, Simon & Schuster

In a future San Francisco ravaged by catastrophic flooding, Bo is about to leave the city when she discovers a note from her elderly neighbor Mia asking for help. Susanna Kwan delves into the relationship between Bo and Mia in Awake in the Floating City, forming a poignant exploration of compassion in the face of adversity.

Vanishing World by Sayaka Murata (Trans. Ginny Tapley Takemori) - July, Granta

From the award-winning Sayaka Murata, Vanishing World is a convention-defying and taboo-busting novel. In a near-future society, Amane desires the conventional ‘clean’ marriage despite her parents committing the ultimate taboo of falling in love and having sex to conceive her.  After learning about Paradise-Eden, Amane wonders if this social experiment could build the brave new world she desires, or will it push her to breaking point?

The Wax Child by Olga Ravn (Trans. Martin Aitken) - Autumn, Viking

In 1620, a wax child tells the story of Christenze Kruckow and other women who are accused of witchcraft. Rumor has it the devil has come to them, that they steal people's happiness, that they have performed unchristian acts. Based on a series of real witchcraft trials, The Wax Child is a horror story about brutality, power, nature, magic and a portrait of the fragile communities that preceded the rationality of the modern world.