HT reviewers pick their best reads of 2025

This year, HT reviewers found themselves reading everything from children’s books to a 1,100-year-old Arabic text about dogs being more virtuous and capable than humans. Historical fiction set in the Tudor court, and a meticulously reported work on the family of aristocrats who lived in a hunting lodge in Delhi also make it to the list. Click on the link under each writer’s picture to read about their picks

AKANKSHYA ABISMRUTA

Books about the aristocrats who once lived in Delhi’s Malcha Mahal, children’s books featuring medu vadas, novels about emotionally abusive marriages, and more (Kapil Narang)

Reviewer’s pick: Tiger Lessons by Sannapureddy Venkatarami Reddy (Courtesy the subject)

Translated from the Telugu, this book shows how dependent humans are on forests for livelihood.

ARUNIMA MAZUMDAR

Reviewer’s pick: Hot Milk by Deborah Levy (Courtesy the subject)

A novel about a mother-daughter duo who spend a summer in Almeria in the south of Spain, this is a book marked by an introspective detailing of ideas.

Reviewer’s pick: This Land is My School, written by Yogesh Maitreya and illustrated by Bhargavi Rudraraju, and Manvinder’s Medu Vada, written by Riddhi Maniar Doda and illustrated by Vinayak Varma. (Courtesy the subject)

A short biography of the Rice Man of India, Dadaji Ramaji Khobragade, and a book about a child’s discovery of his passion for medu vadas, that is also a tribute to the openness that migrants bring with them.

CHITTAJIT MITRA

Reviewer’s pick: Courtesan Don’t Read Newspapers by Anil Yadav (Courtesy the subject)

Translated from the original Hindi, this collection of a novella and five short stories unveils social hypocrisy even as it pulls us back to the reality of our times.

LAMAT R HASAN

Reviewer’s pick: Fadl al-kilab or The Superiority of Dogs Over Many of Those Who Wear Clothes by Ibn al-Marzuban; translated from the original Arabic by GR Smith and MA Abdel Haleem (Courtesy the subject)

In this 1,100 year old Arabic text, the Baghdad-based author laments that he is surrounded by greedy and untrustworthy men and concludes that dogs are far more virtuous and capable.

PRANAVI SHARMA

Reviewer’s pick: The World With Its Mouth Open by Zahid Rafiq (Courtesy the subject)

A debut collection of 11 short stories framed by the nondescript lives of Kashmiris that are rooted wholly in the place they are written from.

RUTVIK BHANDARI

Reviewer’s pick: Anxious People by Fredrik Backman (Courtesy the subject)

A novel about the absurdity of life that looks at humanity with so much gentleness that readers can’t help but look at themselves and everyone else too more softly.

SAUDAMINI JAIN

Reviewer’s pick: The House of Awadh; A Hidden Tragedy by Aletta André and Abhimanyu Kumar (Courtesy the subject)

An astonishing book on the family of aristocrats who lived for decades in Malcha Mahal, a medieval hunting lodge in Delhi’s Ridge.

SAURABH SHARMA

Reviewer’s pick: Nesting by Roisín O’Donnell (Courtesy the subject)

Unlike any other story of emotional abuse within a marriage, this novel is about sensing — and finally tasting — freedom.

SIMAR BHASIN

Reviewer’s pick: Fierceland by Omar Musa and Gurnaik Johal’s Saraswati (Courtesy the subject)

Two works that critique the nexus of politics and capitalism and also use varieties of English that reflect the hybridity and the geographically broad scope of the texts.

SUHIT BOMBAYWALA

Reviewer’s pick: Who Ordered this Truckload of Dung? by Ajahn Brahm (Courtesy the subject)

Based on teachings from the Pali canon, this book deals with rites of passage at various points of a layperson’s life.

SYED SAAD AHMED

Reviewer’s pick: Blood in the Machine: The Origins of the Rebellion Against Big Tech by Brian Merchant (Courtesy the subject)

Technology is not an inevitability. This book shows why we should all be Luddites to build a better world.

TEJA LELE

Reviewer’s pick: Boleyn Traitor by Philippa Gregory (Courtesy the subject)

Resurrecting Jane Boleyn, one of the most misrepresented women in English history.

UTTARAN DAS GUPTA

Reviewer’s pick: India’s First Radicals: Young Bengal and the British Empire by Rosinka Chaudhuri (Courtesy the subject)

On a group from the first generation of university-educated young men in India, whose ideas like secularism, freedom of speech, equality, and inclusivity, the author claims, were later adopted by Indian nationalists in the 20th century.