Ira Mukhoty, author: Best of Books 2025: My Choice

 In The Names (Phoenix) by Flor­ence Knapp, a young mother in 1987 England is loath to follow her husband’s fam­ily tradition by giving her newborn son the same name as his emotionally abusive father. Instead, the author conjures up three alternative realities, were the child to be given three different names. Gripping and utterly novel.

The Dig: Keeladi and the Politics of India’s Past (Hachette) is Sowmiya Ashok’s debut non-fiction, and it begins by explor­ing the exciting new archaeological excava­tions at Keeladi. Part travelogue and part nail-biting whodunit, Ashok offers insights into some of the most politically and emotionally charged questions of the 21st century—who we are and where we came from.

How to End a Story: Collected Diaries, 1978-1998 (Pantheon) by Helen Garner are the collected diaries of one of the greatest and most underrated writers of the 20th century. Harrowing, insightful, self-excoriating and gorgeous. Reading these diaries felt like a hugely privileged invitation into a meditation on what it means to be human, and what it takes to be a writer.