<p>The best books of 2025 as selected by Cassie McCullagh, Kate Evans and a panel of bookish guests - Jason Steger, Jon Page and Robert Goodman. Keep scrolling for a full list...</p><p>GUESTS </p><ul><li>Jason Steger, arts journalist. Former book editor of the Age &amp; SMH, and panellist on ABC TV’s Book Club </li><li>Jon Page, long time bookseller with Pages and Pages bookshop, former General Manager of Dymocks Sydney – and now, book-buyer for W.H. Smith </li><li>Robert Goodman, reviewer and literary judge specialising in genre fiction; regularly reviews for the Newtown Review of Books. His website is <a href="https://pilebythebed.com/">pilebythebed.com</a> </li></ul><p>Jason Steger's Picks</p><p>On-air:</p><ul><li>Flesh by David Szalay</li><li>You Must Remember This by Sean Wilson</li><li>The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai</li><li>Long Island by Colm Tóibín</li><li>My Father Bryce by Adam Courtenay</li><li>Runt and the Diabolical Dognapping by Craig Silvey</li></ul><p>Extras:</p><ul><li>My Sister and Other Lovers by Esther Freud</li></ul><p>Jon Page's Picks</p><p>On-air:</p><ul><li>Buckeye by Patrick Ryan</li><li>Unbury the Dead by Fiona Hardy</li><li>Flashlight by Susan Choi</li><li>I Want Everything by Dominic Amarena</li><li>One Day Everyone Will Have Been Against This by Omar El Akkad</li></ul><p>Extras:</p><ul><li>A Beautiful Family by Jennifer Trevelyan</li><li>The Body Next Door by Zane Lovitt</li><li>The Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong</li><li>The Rose Field [Book of Dust, Vol. 3] by Philip Pullman</li><li>The Names by Florence Knapp</li></ul><p>Robert Goodman's Picks</p><p>On-air:</p><ul><li>Salvage by Jennifer Mills</li><li>Picks and Shovels by Cory Doctorow</li><li>We Do Not Part by Han Kang</li><li>Eden by Mark Brandi</li><li>King Sorrow by Joe Hill</li><li>Shroud by Adrian Tchaikovsky</li></ul><p>Extras:</p><ul><li>The Bewitching by Silvia Moreno Garcia</li><li>Esperance by Adam Oyebanji</li><li>Where the Axe is Buried by Ray Nayler</li><li>Perfection by Vincenzo Latronico</li><li>Lion Hearts by Dan Jones</li><li>Rapture by Emily Maguire</li><li>Unbury the Dead by Fiona Hardy</li><li>The Impossible Thing by Belinda Bauer</li><li>The Art of a Lie by Laura Shepherd Robinson</li><li>Hotel Ukraine by Martin Cruz Smith</li><li>The Hollow Girl by Lynn Yeowart</li><li>The White Crow by Michael Robotham</li><li>Stillwater by Tanya Scott</li><li>The Reunion by Bronwyn Rivers</li><li>The Peak by Sam Guthrie</li><li>The Seventh Floor by David McClosky</li><li>Casualties of Truth by Lauren Francis-Sharma</li></ul><p>Cassie McCullagh's Picks</p><p>On-air:</p><ul><li>Dream State by Eric Puchner</li><li>Theft by Abdulrazak Gurnah</li><li>The Transformations by Andrew Pippos</li><li>Arborescence by Rhett Davis</li><li>What We Can Know by Ian McEwan</li><li>On the Calculation of Volume 1 by Solvej Balle</li></ul><p>Extras:</p><ul><li>The Silver Book by Olivia Laing</li><li>Dancing in the Lift by Mandy Sayer</li></ul><p>Kate Evans' Picks</p><p>On-air:</p><ul><li>Mother Mary Come to Me by Arundhati Roy</li><li>Always Home, Always Homesick by Hannah Kent</li><li>Memorial Days by Geraldine Brooks</li><li>The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami</li><li>The Remembered Soldier by Anjet Daanje</li><li>Twist by Colum McCann</li><li>Landfall by James Bradley</li><li>The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones</li><li>Fierceland by Omar Musa</li><li>Chosen Family by Madeleine Gray</li></ul><p>Extras:</p><ul><li>On the Calculation of Volume 1 by Solvej Balle</li><li>We Do Not Part by Han Kang</li><li>The Wax Child by Olga Ravn</li><li>Theft by Abdulrazak Gurnah</li><li>What We Can Know by Ian McEwan</li><li>Flashlight by Susan Choi</li><li>I Want Everything by Dominic Amarena</li></ul><p>CREDITS</p><ul><li>Presenter, Kate Evans and Cassie McCullagh</li><li>Producer, Kate Evans and Sarah Corbett</li><li>Sound engineer, Craig Tilmouth and Tegan Nicholls</li><li>Arts editor, Rhiannon Brown</li></ul>