2025 Publishers Weekly Best Books (Awarded by Publishers Weekly)

Awards List

Top 10

The Buffalo Hunter Hunter
(*)
Stephen Graham Jones

Audition
(*)
Katie Kitamura

The Sisters
(*)
Jonas Hassen Khemiri

Your Name Here
(*)
Helen DeWitt

On the Calculation of Volume (Book III)
(*)
Solvej Balle

Comics

Tongues, Volume 1
(*)
Anders Nilsen

Spent: A Comic Novel
(*)
Alison Bechdel

Black Cohosh
(*)
Eagle Valiant Brosi

Do Admit: The Mitford Sisters and Me
(*)
Mimi Pond

The Once and Future Riot
(*)
Joe Sacco

Fiction

Open Up
(*)
Thomas Morris

Softie: Stories
(*)
Megan Howell

Twist
(*)
Colum McCann

Universality
(*)
Natasha Brown

Atavists
(*)
Lydia Millet

Counting Backwards
(*)
Binnie Kirshenbaum

Flesh
(*)
David Szalay

Martha's Daughter
(*)
David Haynes

Sky Daddy
(*)
Kate Folk

The Remembered Soldier
(*)
Anjet Daanje

Endling
(*)
Maria Reva

Fox
(*)
Joyce Carol Oates

So Far Gone
(*)
Jess Walter

God and Sex
(*)
Jon Raymond

Archipelago of the Sun
(*)
Yoko Tawada

The Wilderness
(*)
Angela Flournoy

Bog Queen
(*)
Anna North

Pick a Color
(*)
Souvankham Thammavongsa

Vaim
(*)
Jon Fosse

The Wayfinder
(*)
Adam Johnson

Middle Grade

My Presentation Today Is About the Anaconda
(*)
Bibi Dumon Tak

Oasis
(*)
Guojing

A World Worth Saving
(*)
Kyle Lukoff

The Undead Fox of Deadwood Forest
(*)
Aubrey Hartman

Candle Island
(*)
Lauren Wolk

The Summer of the Bone Horses
(*)
Virginia Driving Hawk Sneve

The Trouble with Heroes
(*)
Kate Messner

Graciela in the Abyss
(*)
Meg Medina

The Incredibly Human Henson Blayze
(*)
Derrick Barnes

The Nine Moons of Han Yu and Luli
(*)
Karina Yan Glaser

Pocket Bear
(*)
Katherine Applegate

A Sea of Lemon Trees
(*)
Maria Dolores Aguila

How to Say Goodbye in Cuban
(*)
Daniel Miyares

Night Chef: An Epic Tale of Friendship with a Side of Deliciousness
(*)
Mika Song

Mystery/Thriller

Saint of the Narrows Street
(*)
William Boyle

The Human Scale
(*)
Lawrence Wright

The Savage, Noble Death of Babs Dionne
(*)
Ron Currie Jr.

Your Steps on the Stairs
(*)
Antonio Munoz Molina

The Doorman
(*)
Chris Pavone

Fever Beach
(*)
Carl Hiaasen

We Don't Talk About Carol
(*)
Kristen L. Berry

Salt Bones
(*)
Jennifer Givhan

Crooks
(*)
Lou Berney

Murder in Paris
(*)
Matthew Blake

Listen
(*)
Sacha Bronwasser

Cape Fever
(*)
Nadia Davids

Picture Books

The Keeper of Stories
(*)
Caroline Kusin Pritchard

Let's Be Bees
(*)
Shawn Harris

Your Forest
(*)
Jon Klassen

Alberto Salas Plays Paka Paka con la Papa
(*)
Sara Andrea Fajardo

Downpour
(*)
Yuko Ohnari

Every Monday Mabel
(*)
Jashar Awan

Our Lake
(*)
Angie Kang

Papilio
(*)
Ben Clanton

Stalactite & Stalagmite
(*)
Drew Beckmeyer

Don't Trust Fish!
(*)
Neil Sharpson

For a Girl Becoming
(*)
Joy Harjo

Cranky, Crabby Crow (Saves the World)
(*)
Corey R. Tabor

Fireworks
(*)
Matthew Burgess

Island Storm
(*)
Brian Floca

On Our Way with Mr. Jay
(*)
Chelsea Lin Wallace

A Place for Us
(*)
James Ransome

Popo the Xolo
(*)
Paloma Angelina Lopez

Lena the Chicken (But Really a Dinosaur!)
(*)
Linda Bailey

Romance

A Gentleman's Gentleman
(*)
T.J. Alexander

Great Big Beautiful Life
(*)
Emily Henry

Ordinary Love
(*)
Marie Rutkoski

August Lane
(*)
Regina Black

Female Fantasy
(*)
Iman Hariri-Kia

House of Rayne
(*)
Harley Laroux

SF/Fantasy/Horror

Death of the Author
(*)
Nnedi Okorafor

Notes from a Regicide
(*)
Isaac Fellman

The Raven Scholar
(*)
Antonia Hodgson

The Incandescent
(*)
Emily Tesh

You Weren't Meant to Be Human
(*)
Andrew Joseph White

The Midnight Timetable
(*)
Bora Chung

Saltcrop
(*)
Yume Kitasei

Young Adult

Song of a Blackbird
(*)
Maria Van Lieshout

A Bird in the Air Means We Can Still Breathe
(*)
Mahogany L. Browne

The Corruption of Hollis Brown
(*)
K. Ancrum

Run Away With Me
(*)
Brian Selznick

One of the Boys
(*)
Victoria Zeller

Skipshock
(*)
Caroline O'Donoghue

The Tournament
(*)
Rebecca Barrow

This Place Kills Me: A Graphic Novel
(*)
Mariko Tamaki

Reasons to Hate Me
(*)
Susan Metallo

Truth Is
(*)
Hannah V. Sawyerr

And the River Drags Her Down
(*)
Jihyun Yun

Angelica and the Bear Prince: (A Graphic Novel)
(*)
Trung Le Nguyen

The Leaving Room
(*)
Amber McBride

Reasons We Break
(*)
Jesmeen Kaur Deo

Award Categories

Comics

Fiction

Middle Grade

Mystery/Thriller

Picture Books

Romance

SF/Fantasy/Horror

Top 10

Young Adult

Award Years

2025

2024

2023

2022

2021

2020

2019

2018