Manu S Pillai: Best of Books 2025: My Choice

A masterful biography I read this year is Gareth Russell’s Queen James: The Life and Loves of Britain’s First King (William Collins), which investigates not just the political life of an English monarch but also his queerness.

Among history books, Robert Ivermee’s Glorious Failure: The Forgotten History of French Imperialism in India (C Hurst & Co) stands out for highlighting an important but little-known slice of our colonial experience. Snigdha Poonam’s Scamlands: Inside the Asian Empire of Fraud that Preys on the World (Penguin) is a fascinating journalistic investigation into an economy of deceit which also speaks of a deeply anxious generation.

Arundhati Roy’s Mother Mary Comes to Me (Hamish Hamilton) was an extraordinary read—one of those books I couldn’t put down and finished in two days. In fiction, my standout novel this year has been Saharu Nusaiba Kannanari’s The Menon Investigation (Penguin). He is, I think, the most original literary voice to have emerged in English writing in India in recent years. Finally, I have just begun Rahul Bhattacharya’s Railsong (Bloomsbury), and it is looking very accomplished.