Book List

Best Historical Fiction of 2025

FICTION

ISOLA

by Allegra Goodman

Goodman’s sweeping page-turner is at once historical and modern, intimate and epic, personal and powerful. Full review >

FULL REVIEW >

FICTION

SONS AND DAUGHTERS

by Chaim Grade ; translated by Rose Waldman

A great Yiddish novelist’s grimly foreboding and fiercely alive final work. Full review >

FULL REVIEW >

FICTION

THE WAYFINDER

by Adam Johnson

A book stuffed with revelations while keeping many secrets. Full review >

FULL REVIEW >

FICTION

THE BUFFALO HUNTER HUNTER

by Stephen Graham Jones

A weirdly satisfying and bloody reckoning with some of America’s most shameful history. Full review >

FULL REVIEW >

FICTION

FONSECA

by Jessica Francis Kane

A finely turned novel that evokes its subject’s gift for slyly biting domestic tales. Full review >

FULL REVIEW >

FICTION

NORTH SUN

by Ethan Rutherford

A classically styled novel that sounds a very contemporary alarm. Full review >

FULL REVIEW >

FICTION

THE ANTIDOTE

by Karen Russell

A storytelling tour de force that lives up to the promise of its name. Full review >

FULL REVIEW >

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