Every year brings a fresh wave of memorable fiction. Here are 10 notable books from 2025 that made a mark across genres and geographies. Zahid Rafiq’s 'The World With its Mouth Open' offers haunting short stories from Srinagar, filled with everyday struggles and state violence. Ruchir Joshi’s 'Great Eastern Hotel' paints a lively picture of 1940s Calcutta amid wartime and independence struggles. John Banville’s 'Venetian Vespers' is a dark thriller set in Venice blending romance and menace. Lucy Steeds’ 'The Artist' explores secrets in 1920s Provence around creativity and power. Rahul Bhattacharya’s 'Railsong' follows a woman’s complex journey through India’s social and political changes, while Nussaibah Younis’s 'Fundamentally' provocatively tackles IS brides with humor set between London and Iraq. Salman Rushdie’s 'The Eleventh Hour' is a thoughtful collection on memory and endings, traveling across India, England, and the US. Kiran Desai’s 'The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny' dives deep into immigrant lives, love, and trauma across continents. Solvej Balle’s 'On the Calculation of Volume III' experiments with time loops to explore identity and human connections. Finally, Laurent Binet’s 'Perspectives' is a clever murder mystery set in Renaissance Florence involving famous artists. These books promise unique, riveting reads that reflect today’s diverse literary landscape.