Winter + Spring 2025 Publishing Preview
20 new releases to put on your radar from January through April
The publishing world can be divided into three seasons: winter/spring, summer, and fall. Summer releases, which cover May through August, are known for buzzy beach reads. Fall books, released from September through November, are defined by literary heavy hitters. The winter/spring season, which runs from January through April, covers a range of genres and, in my opinion, offers the most range.
Below, I am sharing 20 of my most anticipated releases coming out in January, February, March, and April. These are just a handful of the books being published this season. The list includes three books in translation, three works of nonfiction, literary fiction, historical fiction, short story collections, debuts, and more. I’m excited to read all of these in the months to come.
What books are you most looking forward to this season? Let me know in the comments below!
January
How to Sleep at Night - Elizabeth Harris - Fiction - Release Date: January 7
Elizabeth Harris is a reporter for The New York Times Book Review. How to Sleep at Night is her debut about a man who wants to run for Congress as a Republican, but only if he can have his liberal husband’s blessing. The story centers around his Congressional campaign and the dynamics between the candidate, his husband, and the candidate’s sister. If you are in the mood for a book about politics this one has been described as “witty and whip smart,” which feels like a work of fiction befitting the moment.
The Granddaughters - Bernard Schlink - Historical Fiction, translated from German - Release Date: January 7
After discovering that his recently deceased wife left behind a baby in East Germany before fleeing to the West to reunite with him, Kaspar decides that he must find this child, now adult. His search takes him to a rural community of neo-Nazis where he finds a woman and her daughter that resemble his wife. Their beliefs could not be more different and yet Kaspar is determined to find common ground with family divided by circumstance and chance.
Confessions - Catherine Airey - Fiction - Release Date: January 14
Confessions is a sweeping story spanning generations and continents. The book begins in New York in late September 2001 as Cora Brady searches for her missing father. A letter from an aunt in Ireland brings the book to County Donegal in 1974 where a group of artists are living and working. This is a debut about the impact of past decisions on future generations, which seems like a book right up my alley.
Good Girl - Aria Aber - Fiction - Release Date: January 14
Born in Germany to Afghan parents, Nila has spent her childhood trying to find her own voice. One night, at a Berlin nightclub, Nila meets Marlowe, a semi-famous American writer. Nila finds herself drawn to Marlowe’s life at the same time as racial tensions sweep across Germany, impacting her family and community. This is a debut novel that has gotten great advance reviews from authors I respect, including Leslie Jamison and Kaveh Akbar.
We Do Not Part - Han Kang - Fiction, translated from Korean - Release Date: January 21
Han Kang, a Korean author, won the 2024 Nobel Prize in Literature and the International Booker Prize in 2016. Last month I enjoyed an excerpt from her newest book, We Do Not Part, in The New Yorker, about a woman who travels to Jeju Island at the request of an injured friend to save the woman’s beloved bird. Just as she arrives, however, a winter storm descends, causing the boundaries between dream and reality to blur.
A Gorgeous Excitement - Cynthia Weiner - Fiction/Thriller - Release Date: January 21
It’s the summer of 1986, and Nina is killing time at Flanagan’s, an Upper East Side bar for young Manhattan society. While at Flanagan’s she’s introduced to cocaine, which fuels her pursuit of charismatic Gardner Reed. This unencumbered, drug-filled pursuit, however, could ultimately prove fatal. I met Cynthia Weiner at a book event back in October, and am eager to check out her debut.
The Killing Fields of East New York - Stacy Horn - Nonfiction/History/Investigative Journalism - Release Date: January 28
In this work of investigative journalism, Stacy Horn explores how the subprime mortgage scandal of the 1970s turned a well-off Brooklyn neighborhood into a crime-laden area with the highest murder rate in NYPD history. Horn argues that the corrupt implementation of the Housing and Urban Development Act of 1968 allowed white-collar crime to bankrupt and devastate the neighborhood, leading to the largest series of mortgage fraud prosecutions in American history.
February
Talk to Me - Rich Benjamin - Nonfiction/Memoir - Release Date: February 11
Talk to Me is a memoir written by the grandson of a Haitian president who was ousted in a coup in 1957 hatched by the Eisenhower administration. While his grandfather and grandmother were taken at gunpoint, his mother and her siblings were kidnapped and smuggled out of the country and into America. Although Benjamin knew nothing about his family history as a child, the traumatic legacy of the coup and its aftermath haunted his mother and her ability to parent him. In Talk to Me, Benjamin not only traces his family’s history but also the impact of American intervention today.
Crush - Ada Calhoun - Fiction - Release Date: February 25
When a husband asks his wife to reconsider the labels of their marriage, havoc descends on the narrator’s previously stable life. Crush is a novel about redefining relationships while maintaining a marriage partnership in the modern era.
Death Takes Me - Cristina Rivera Garza - Fiction/Mystery, translated from Spanish - Release Date: February 25
A professor reports her discovery of a corpse in a dark alley that she finds laying beside a graffitied warning to “beware of the silent woman in the desert.” As more men are discovered near the same warning, a detective tries to decipher the message and prevent the murders. This book is translated to English from its original Spanish, a gendered language in which the word word “victim” is always feminine. The result is a piece of literature redefining the traditional crime genre’s gendered narratives.
The Boyhood of Cain - Michael Amherst - Fiction - Release Date: February 25
After Daniel’s father loses his job as the headmaster at a local English school, the family moves to a rural area where they struggle to adapt. Daniel’s only comfort is a friend at school who he loves and a teacher who they both worship. Daniel is coming of age and into his sexuality, but his newfound relationships are destined to collide with his familial expectations.
March
Dream Count - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie - Fiction - Release Date: March 4
Dream Count, Adichie’s first novel since Americanah was published over a decade ago, follows four women: a Nigerian travel writer living in America, a successful lawyer and best friend of the writer, a cousin living in Nigeria working in finance, and the writer’s housekeeper. Each woman in this sweeping novel struggles with the achievement of love and happiness within an interconnected world.
The Dream Hotel - Laila Lalami - Dystopian Fiction - Release Date: March 4
In this work of speculative fiction, agents from America’s Risk Assessment Administration use an algorithm to determine who is likely to commit a crime. Sara, returning home to LA from a conference abroad, is detained by agents from the RAA who tell her they possess data from her dreams that show she will soon harm her husband. At the detention facility, Sara lives with other women trying to prove their innocence from speculative crimes identified through the burgeoning surveillance state.
Universality - Natasha Brown - Fiction - Release Date: March 4
A journalist attempts to uncover the circumstances surrounding an attack on a young man on a Yorkshire farm after he is nearly bludgeoned to death with a gold bar. Her investigation, which goes viral, exposes shady characters while also raising more questions than answers. I was impressed by Natasha Brown’s writing in Assembly, so I am excited to see what she does with this interesting premise.
The Antidote - Karen Russell - Historical Fiction - Release Date: March 11
The Antidote takes place during the Great Depression after a catastrophic dust storm engulfs the fictional town of Uz, Nebraska. The novel follows five characters - including a “Prairie Witch,” a Polish wheat farmer, his orphan niece, a basketball star, and the witch’s apprentice - whose lives become interconnected after the storm passes through. Karen Russell is a Pulitzer finalist for Swamplandia!, so this book is sure to get a lot of buzz.
April
My Documents - Kevin Nguyen - Fiction/Satire - Release Date: April 8
In this alternative-reality-satire, the American government creates internment camps for Vietnamese Americans after a series of violent, senseless attacks across the country. The Nguyen family is upended after the government begins detaining members of the family who then attempt to get their message to people outside the camps.
Audition - Katie Kitamura - Fiction - Release Date: April 8
Audition is a book about the roles we play in our everyday lives. Two people meet for lunch: one an accomplished actress and the other a young man. The relationship between the two is unclear at first, but is unraveled and dissected over the course of the novel. The book is described by the publisher as a “destabilizing Möbius strip of a novel” (a one-sided surface with no boundaries), which doesn’t exactly clarify what’s going on, but does indicate to me that Kitamura is working with an innovative structure.
The Float Test - Lynn Steger Strong - Fiction - Release Date: April 8
The Float Test is an exploration of family secrets told over the course of one hot Florida summer. Four siblings have gathered after a major loss. They need each other to grieve but struggle to trust one another. As perspective shifts from one sibling to another, however, so do the contours of the drama. I think Lynn Steger Strong is particularly good at writing complex family stories using well-crafted dysfunctional characters, which is always something I’ll read.
Atavists - Lydia Millet - Fiction/Short Stories - Release Date: April 22
Atavists is a short story collection from the author of two truly excellent books: Dinosaurs and A Children’s Bible. In this linked collection, Millet writes about the various “ists” in our post-pandemic world - futurists, insurrectionists, and cosmetologists - and an associated cast of characters ranging from an incel bodybuilder, nosy neighbors, and pretentious academics.
Ordinary Time - Annie B. Jones - Nonfiction/Memoir/Essays - Release Date: April 22
Annie B. Jones is the owner of the independent bookstore The Bookshelf in Thomasville, Georgia and host of one of my favorite book podcasts, From the Front Porch. Ordinary Time is her first book; a memoir about living a small life in a small town. I find Annie to be an insightful thinker even when she’s doing something as simple as discussing her favorite books, and I think this memoir has the potential to be a wonderful collection of essays on finding simple joy in ordinary life.
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Want to see past season’s publishing previews? Click the link below to check out any new releases you might have missed.
Curious about my favorite books from 2024? You can find those here:
So many books to look forward to but especially can’t wait for Dream Count by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie!