The 2026 Reading List: Top 10 Books

The 2026 Reading List: Top 10 Books

NILIM KASHYAP BARTHAKUR

As 2025 draws to a close, it has become clear that this was a vintage year for global and regional literature. These are the books that dominated conversations at literature festivals and quiet reading corners alike, the top 10 books of 2025, which you can savour in 2026.

1. The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny

By Kiran Desai, Desai’s first novel in nearly twenty years is a towering achievement in post-colonial literature. It follows two protagonists who occupy the “shadow spaces” of New York City, those invisible corners where immigrants build lives out of fragments. What makes this book extraordinary is Desai’s refusal to sentimentalise the immigrant experience. Instead, she explores the physics of loneliness: how it feels in the body, how it alters the perception of time, and how it eventually becomes a form of identity. Her prose is rhythmic and haunting, making the mundane act of waiting for a phone call feel like an epic tragedy.

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2. Mother Mary Comes to Me

By Arundhati Roy, Roy has always been a writer of the “large scale”, nations, movements, and global injustices. In this memoir, she turns that fierce intellect inward. The book is a jagged, beautiful autopsy of her relationship with her mother, Mary Roy.

It explores the Kerala of Roy’s childhood not as a tourist’s paradise, but as a crucible of caste, gender, and familial expectations. By the end of the book, the reader realises that Roy’s lifelong fight against authority began at the kitchen table. It is a brave, often uncomfortable work that redefines the genre of the Indian memoir.

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3. Climate Justice 101

By Rituraj Phukan,Assamese environmentalist Rituraj Phukan has produced what many are calling the survival manual for the 21st century. Phukan manages a difficult feat: he translates complex climate science into a language that feels personal and urgent. While the book has a global scope, it is deeply rooted in his experiences in the Northeast, using the melting glaciers of the Himalayas and the floods of the Brahmaputra as a microcosm for the world’s crisis. It is not a book of doom, but one of actionable hope, providing a clear understanding of indigenous conservation wisdom and the immediate steps needed to protect our biodiversity.

4. Sunrise on the Reaping

By Suzanne Collins, Collins proves once again that “Young Adult” fiction can carry the weight of serious political philosophy. By taking us back to Haymitch Abernathy’s games, she strips away the glamour often associated with the later trilogy and shows us the raw, ugly mechanics of authoritarianism. The 2025 release was a global phenomenon not just because of the brand, but because the themes of media manipulation and the desensitisation to violence felt uncomfortably relevant to our current world. It is a fast, brutal, and deeply intelligent read.

5. Wild Fictions

By Amitav Ghosh in Wild Fictions, Ghosh blends the boundaries between the essay and the short story. He argues that our current ecological crisis is also a crisis of the imagination—we simply cannot “see” the catastrophe coming because our stories are too small. Through a series of connected narratives that span from the Sundarbans to the Arctic, Ghosh forces the reader to confront the non-human world. His writing remains some of the most elegant in the English language, turning complex scientific data into prose that feels like a high-stakes thriller.

6. Chaolung: Patkair Heepare Aru Epaare

By Dhrubajyoti Barman.Launched at the end of the 2025 Assam Book Fair, this historical novel has quickly become a cultural landmark. It meticulously traces the life of Swargadeo Sui-ka-pha, the founder of the Ahom dynasty. Barman’s writing is both epic and intimate, documenting the arduous journey across the Patkai hills and the visionary diplomatic efforts required to unite diverse communities into the cohesive Assamese society. It is a vital reclamation of identity that transforms dry historical facts into a living, breathing saga of resilience and nation-building.

7. Flesh

By David Szalay, Szalay’s Booker-winning novel is a radical experiment in perspective. By focusing entirely on the biological and physical sensations of its protagonist over several decades, Szalay creates a portrait of a life that is stripped of ego. There are no grand epiphanies here, only the slow, steady march of time as written on the skin and the muscles. It is a challenging book that asks: If we take away our thoughts and our titles, what is left of us? The answer is both terrifying and strangely liberating.

8. The Heart Lamp

By Banu Mushtaq (Translated by Deepa Bhasthi) Mushtaq’s short stories are like small, controlled fires. Each one burns with a particular intensity, usually centred on women navigating the patriarchal structures of rural and semi-urban India. The 2025 translation has been hailed for its “unflinching clarity.” Mushtaq does not offer easy resolutions or “happy endings.” Instead, she offers the truth. Her characters are resilient not because they win, but because they refuse to be erased. This is a vital contribution to the feminist literary canon.

9. Is a River Alive?

By Robert Macfarlane. Macfarlane is the gold standard for nature writing, and this book might be his masterpiece. He travels to rivers across the globe that have been granted “human rights” and asks what that means for our future. His writing is luminous—he finds poetry in the movement of silt and the chemistry of water. The book is a call to action, but it is also a meditation on the fluidity of life itself. It reminds us that we are not separate from nature; we are a part of its flow.

10. The World After Gaza

By Pankaj Mishra. In one of the most intellectually rigorous releases of 2025, Pankaj Mishra examines the shifting balance of global power through the lens of recent Middle Eastern turmoil. Mishra interrogates themes of violence, colonialism, and the failure of international institutions. It is a demanding read that connects contemporary crises to broader historical patterns, offering a nuanced and often unsettling perspective on the future of global politics. For those seeking to understand the deeper currents of our current world, this is an indispensable text.

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