From a richly atmospheric novella to a virtuosic debut, BBC journalists have selected the best fiction of the year. Among the highlights is The Director, a part-fictionalised historical novel by bestselling German-language author Daniel Kehlmann. It explores art, power and complicity through the life of Austrian filmmaker GW Pabst, who fled the Nazis for Hollywood, then returned to work for Goebbels' propaganda ministry. The London Review of Books calls it 'a book about dreams and of dreams within dreams'.
Claire-Louise Bennett's Big Kiss, Bye-Bye follows a woman who moves from city to countryside, haunted by memories of past lovers. The Times Literary Supplement describes Bennett as a 'high priestess of isolation' and praises her 'neo-baroque charisma'. The novel is 'shape-shifting and splendid', concerned with erotic annihilation and persistence.
Set in Ukraine in 2022, Endling by Kyra Reva centres on three women involved in a mail-order bride business. Longlisted for the Booker Prize, the debut is praised by The Guardian as 'dextrous' and 'formally inventive', and by NPR as 'virtuosic'. It follows a scientist and two sisters on a wild journey across Ukraine as war looms.
Ian McEwan's 18th novel, What We Can Know, tells a dual story: a poet's dinner party in 2014 and a scholar's research in 2119. The New York Times calls it 'brash and busy', while the Irish Independent declares it 'an audacious meditation on art, memory and posterity'.
Finally, Seascraper by James Wood is a compact novella set in a northern English coastal town, where a shrimp-scraper dreams of becoming a folk musician. Longlisted for the 2025 Booker Prize, it has won acclaim for its evocative descriptions.
