The envelope, please: After a full year spent reading hundreds of books and meeting regularly to bicker — er, converse — about their merits and flaws, the editors of the Book Review have chosen the 10 Best Books of 2025.

快点揭晓吧：历时一整年，编辑部成员阅读了数百本书籍，定期聚会争论——呃，应该说是探讨——每本书的优劣。如今，书评编辑部正式公布2025年度十佳好书榜单。

In novels that transport us from the battlefields of World War I to contemporary Swedish dance clubs to the halls of a convent in rural Australia, and from Nazi movie studios to New York art galleries where immigrants look for a sense of connection, our fiction picks offer sweeping stories about timely and timeless topics with a sense of verve and style.

入选的虚构类作品题材广泛，带领读者穿梭于第一次世界大战的战场、当代瑞典的舞厅、澳大利亚乡村的修道院回廊，还涉足纳粹时期的电影制片厂与移民寻求归属感的纽约艺术画廊。这些小说以精湛的文笔和独特的风格，讲述了兼具时效性与永恒的各种故事。

In nonfiction, we chose immersive journalistic accounts of the housing crisis and a historic Black church, along with a riveting biography of a misunderstood painter, a fraught mother-daughter memoir and an enthralling shipwreck story that is as much a meditation on marriage as it is a seafaring adventure.

非虚构类作品中，我们精选了聚焦住房危机与一座具有历史意义的黑人教堂的深入报道、一位被误解画家的引人入胜传记、一部情感纠结的母女回忆录，以及一个扣人心弦的海难故事，它既是惊心动魄的航海冒险记，也是对婚姻关系的深刻思索。

You can hear our editors discuss these books, and others they loved, on the latest episode of the Book Review podcast, and you can check out our larger list of 100 Notable Books of 2025 here. And for the longer view, here’s a list of all of our Best Books picks since 2000.

你可以在书评播客最新一期节目中，聆听编辑们畅谈这些入选好书及其他心头挚爱之作；并在此查阅我们2025年度百部佳作完整榜单。若想回顾历年精选，这里汇总了自2000年以来我们评选出的所有年度好书名单。

Fiction

虚构类

Angel Down

《坠落天使》(Angel Down)

by Daniel Kraus

作者：丹尼尔·克劳斯

On paper, “Angel Down” sounds like a book that shouldn’t work: It’s a stream-of-consciousness World War I novel, told in one sprawling, 285-page-long sentence, about a failed draft dodger who finds, of all things, an angel on the battlefield. And yet, Kraus brings all of these elements together to craft a triumphant, unforgettable book filled with bravura writing, indelible set pieces and an urgent message. Read our review.

单看简介，《坠落的天使》似乎很难出彩：这是一部以第一次世界大战为背景的意识流小说，通篇用一个长达285页的长句写成，讲述的是一名逃避兵役失败的男子竟在战场上偶遇一位天使的故事。然而，克劳斯巧妙地融合了所有这些元素，成就了一部震撼人心、令人难忘的佳作。书中既有精湛的文笔、令人印象深刻的经典场景，更传递出迫切的信息。点击查看书评。

The Director

《导演）(The Director)

by Daniel Kehlmann

作者：丹尼尔·凯尔曼

How nerve-racking to be G.W. Pabst, the 20th-century Austrian filmmaker at the center of Kehlmann’s wondrous novel. He’s an auteur stuck in Europe under Nazi rule, forced to make propaganda and benign duds for the Reich while compromising every creative principle he once stood for. “The important thing is to make art under the circumstances one finds oneself in,” Pabst murmurs at one point, winning over exactly no one. Still, Kehlmann’s complex portrait, brightened by caustic humor and memorable historical cameos (and fluidly translated from the German by Ross Benjamin), presents an intriguing test of integrity in a fracturing world. The timing couldn’t have been better. Read our review.

身为G·W·帕布斯特何其煎熬——在凯尔曼这部奇妙小说里居于核心位置的正是这位20世纪的奥地利电影人。他是一位作者导演，被困在纳粹统治下的欧洲，被迫为帝国拍摄宣传片和各种平庸之作，逐一背弃曾坚守的创作原则。“重要的是在自己所处的环境下去创作艺术，”帕布斯特曾喃喃自语道，但未能说服任何人。然而，凯尔曼以犀利的幽默与令人难忘的历史人物点缀其间（罗斯·本杰明流畅的德英翻译功不可没），在一个正处于分崩离析中的世界里呈现出一场耐人寻味的诚信考验。这部作品的问世恰逢其时。点击查看书评。

The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny

《索妮娅与桑尼的孤独》(The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny)

by Kiran Desai

作者：基兰·德赛

Like the richest 19th-century fiction, this nearly 700-page family saga had our critic Alexandra Jacobs swooning: “Crowded but never claustrophobic,” she wrote, and “better company than real-life people.” A tentative romance between the title characters, immigrants from India caught between obligation and self-expression, is the throughline. Skittering between nations and generations from the late 1990s to just after 9/11, Desai stirs in scheming heirs, coveted recipes, a missing amulet and the art monster from hell. Read our review.

如同最为醇厚的十九世纪小说，这部近700页的家族史诗令我们的书评人亚历山德拉·雅各布斯为之倾倒：“人物繁多却无窒息感，”她写道，“比现实世界中的人更值得相伴。”书名中的两位主人公之间犹疑的爱情是全书的主线，他们是来自印度的移民，在责任与自我表达间挣扎。故事跨越国家与世代，从20世纪90年代后期直至9·11事件后，德赛在其中搅入了暗中谋算的继承人、人人渴求的食谱、遗失的护身符，还有一个来自地狱的艺术怪物。点击查看书评。

And read our critic A.O. Scott on a scene he loves from this novel here.

 另请点击这里，阅读我们的评论员A·O·斯科特对小说中他挚爱的一个场景的解读。

The Sisters

《姐妹们》(The Sisters)

by Jonas Hassen Khemiri

作者：乔纳斯·哈桑·克米里

“There was something about the Mikkola sisters that made me feel less alone,” says Jonas, the narrator of this spry and sprawling novel, and a playfully neurotic stand-in for the author himself. Up close and from afar, at drunken parties and at pickup basketball games, he follows the fortunes of Ina (stolid), Evelyn (magnetic) and Anastasia (unfettered) for more than three decades. He, like them, is half Swedish and half Tunisian; he, like them, hungers to break away and blossom. Though hardly a quick read, “The Sisters” zooms forward, powered by hurtling prose and a literary magic trick: Khemiri tells the story in increments of time that grow increasingly briefer, ending on one minute in the future that offers long-awaited grace. Read our review.

 “米科拉三姐妹身上有种让我不再孤单的东西，”这部轻快又恢宏的小说的叙述者乔纳斯如此说道，这个顽皮又神经质的角色正是作者本人的化身。三十余年间，他在喝到东倒西歪的派对上以及街头篮球赛中，或近或远地追随着伊娜（沉稳）、伊芙琳（迷人）与安娜斯塔西娅（不羁）的命运轨迹。和她们一样，他有着瑞典与突尼斯的双重血统；和她们一样，他渴望挣脱束缚、绽放自我。《姐妹们》虽非易读之作，却在奔腾的文字与文学魔术的推动下疾驰向前：克米里以不断缩短的时间刻度讲述故事，最终停驻在未来某一分钟——那里藏着期盼已久的恩典。点击查看书评。

Stone Yard Devotional

《石院灵修》(Stone Yard Devotional)

by Charlotte Wood

作者：夏洛特·伍德

In the remote plains of New South Wales, Australia, a woman arrives at a convent in desperate need of solitude and retreat. It’s a curious choice: She left behind a full life in Sydney, and is an atheist who abhors the “savagery” of the Catholic Church. Yet she is lulled into contentment, falling into a comforting rhythm of work and contemplation.

在澳大利亚新南威尔士州偏远的平原上，一位女子来到一座修道院，迫切寻求独处与静修。这是个奇怪的选择：她在悉尼有完整的生活，而且是个厌恶天主教会“野蛮行径”的无神论者。然而，她逐渐沉浸在舒心的满足中，进入了劳作与沉思组成的安宁节奏。

Three arrivals upset this harmony: A mouse infestation of biblical proportions horrifies the nuns, who resolutely set about stamping out the vermin. The bones of a sister who died abroad are returned to the convent, and are accompanied by a woman from the narrator’s past. True to its title, this exquisite novel traces the interior path of a woman grappling with how to live without causing harm. In the process, Wood shows that our attention is one of the most sacred gifts we have to offer. Read our review.

这份和谐被三件外来之事打破：一场圣经浩劫规模的鼠患令修女们惊恐不已，她们决意铲除这些害虫；一位客死异乡的修女的遗骸被送回修道院，与之同行的还有一位叙述者过去相识的女子。正如书名所示，这部精致的小说勾勒出一位女性在“如何活着不给他人带来伤害”的挣扎中探寻内心的轨迹。伍德在此过程中揭示出我们的关注力，是我们所能给予的最神圣的馈赠之一。点击查看书评。

Nonfiction

非虚构类

A Marriage at Sea

《海上婚姻》(A Marriage at Sea)

by Sophie Elmhirst

作者：索菲·埃尔姆赫斯特

In 1972, a young married couple, Maurice and Maralyn Bailey, decided to give up their lives in England and sail to New Zealand on their boat, the Auralyn. But after nine months, the Auralyn was destroyed by a breaching whale, leaving the Baileys stranded for 118 days in the Pacific aboard a makeshift raft.

1972年，年轻的已婚夫妇莫里斯和玛拉琳·贝利决定放弃他们在英格兰的生活，驾驶自己的船“奥拉琳号”驶向新西兰。但九个月后，一头跃起的鲸鱼将“奥拉琳号”撞得粉碎，夫妇俩靠一个简陋的木筏在太平洋上漂流了118天。

The story of their survival is miraculous enough — Elmhirst masterfully recreates the daily fears, tediums and triumphs of a life in which every moment could be your last. But what really elevates this beautifully constructed narrative is the sensitive characterization of two very different people — a misanthrope and an optimist. It’s a story that, while remarkable, will leave everyone asking essential questions about loneliness, about character and about partnership. Read our review.

他们的求生故事本身已是奇迹——埃尔姆赫斯特巧妙重现了那种生命随时可能终结的日子里每日的恐惧、乏味与胜利。但真正让这部结构精巧的叙事更上一层楼的，是她对这两位性格截然不同的主人公细腻的刻画——一位是厌世者，一位是乐天派。在令人称奇之余，这也是一个会让每一位读者叩问关于孤独、性格和伴侣关系等根本性问题的故事。点击查看书评。

Mother Emanuel

《以马内利圣母堂》(Mother Emanuel)

by Kevin Sack

作者：凯文·萨克

When a white supremacist intent on fomenting a race war shot and killed nine members of a Bible study class at Charleston’s Emanuel A.M.E. Church in 2015, he struck at the heart of the oldest African American Episcopal congregation in the South, in a city that had been the center of the country’s slave trade and the place where the Civil War began.

2015年，一名意图挑起种族战争的白人至上主义者闯入查尔斯顿以马内利非裔卫理公会教堂的一个查经班，枪杀了九名教友——他击中了美国南部历史最悠久的非裔卫理公会堂区的心脏，这座城市曾是全美奴隶贸易的中心，也是南北战争打响第一枪的地方。

Assigned to cover the aftermath of the massacre for The New York Times, Sack understood that the story carried far-reaching symbolic weight. His resulting book, nearly 10 years in the making, is a timely feat of research and reporting, a vivid chronicle of the Black church’s essential role in America’s story, and a surpassingly eloquent testament to resistance, resilience and faith. Read our review.

萨克受《纽约时报》指派报道这场屠杀的后续。他深知这个事件承载着深远的象征意义。历时近十年完成的这部作品，是恰逢其时、扎实缜密的调查报道，它生动记录了黑人教会在美国历史中的核心角色，更是一份对抗争、韧性与信仰的绝佳证词。点击查看书评。

Mother Mary Comes to Me

《母亲向我走来》(Mother Mary Comes to Me)

by Arundhati Roy

作者：阿兰达蒂·洛伊

In this unsparing yet darkly funny memoir, the prizewinning novelist captures the fierce, asthmatic, impossible, inspirational woman who shaped her as a writer and an activist — and left her emotionally bruised for a lifetime. Roy doesn’t let herself off too easily, however. Fleeing from an insular Indian community to the cosmopolitan Delhi and then the global stage, she — like her mother — is imperious, impatient and unforgettable. Read our review.

在这本毫不留情却充满黑色幽默的回忆录中，这位获奖小说家描绘了那位塑造了她——一个作家和行动主义者——的女性，她强悍、身患哮喘、难以相处却充满感召力，而她也在洛伊心中留下了终生难愈的情感创伤。不过，洛伊对自己也未手下留情。从封闭的印度村落逃往国际化的德里，再到走上全球舞台，她如同其母亲一般，展现出了专断、急躁、令人难忘的特质。点击查看书评。

There Is No Place for Us

《无处容身》(There Is No Place for Us)

by Brian Goldstone

作者：布莱恩·戈德斯通

With uncommon precision, tenacity and grace, Goldstone, an anthropologist turned journalist, casts a shocking spotlight on the “working homeless,” a term that should be an oxymoron but which in America defines hundreds of thousands of people. Following five Atlanta families for whom home is a car, a relative’s couch or a squalid room in an extended stay hotel — often some rotating combination of all three — his book gives intimate human shape to a population uncounted by the government and largely invisible to the public, one that, owing to soaring rents, paltry wages and misguided urban policy, is barely surviving even with a paycheck. Read our review.

曾是人类学家的戈德斯通以记者身份，以罕见的精准、执着与优雅笔触将刺目的聚光灯投向了“有工作的无家可归者”——这是一个自相矛盾的词，却是数十万美国人的真实写照。通过追踪亚特兰大五个家庭的生存轨迹（对他们而言，家就是汽车、亲戚的沙发，或长租旅馆里肮脏的房间，而且往往是在三者间辗转），本书给这个不在政府的统计数字中、也不在公众视野里的群体，赋予了具体鲜活的面貌。在房租飞涨、工资微薄与城市政策失当的夹击下，即便有薪水，他们也只能在生存边缘挣扎。点击查看书评。

Wild Thing

《狂野之徒》(Wild Thing)

by Sue Prideaux

作者：苏·普里多

In the annals of art history, bad boy artists are legion, and the 19th-century French painter Gauguin often figures near the top of the list — denounced as a colonizer who seduced underage Tahitian girls and spread syphilis in the South Seas. Prideaux’s enthralling biography, studded with keen close readings of her subject’s innovative art, chips away at this caricature, fashioning in its stead a slyly witty portrait of an original and contradictory man who experienced extreme wealth and abject poverty, who abandoned his wife, children and country in pursuit of his singular artistic vision, and who fought for the interests of his Polynesian neighbors against the colonial authorities even as he took in several of their daughters as child brides. Read our review.

在艺术史的长卷中，“坏小子”艺术家比比皆是，而19世纪法国画家高更常居此类榜单前列——他被斥为诱骗塔希提未成年少女、在南太平洋传播梅毒的殖民者。普里多这部传记引人入胜，以对传主创新艺术的敏锐细读为经纬，层层剥除这种脸谱化印象，重塑出一幅狡黠而鲜活的肖像：一个兼具独创性与矛盾性的灵魂，历尽巨富与赤贫，为追寻独树一帜的艺术愿景抛妻弃子、远走他乡；他一方面为波利尼西亚邻人的权益与殖民当局抗争，一方面又将他们的数名幼女纳为未成年的新娘。点击查看书评。