The best novels, non fiction, short stories, poetry collections, biographies...

Autobiography, biography, diaries, memoirs, portraits, testimonies…

1. Manuel Chaves Nogales. Diaries of the Second World War. Unpublished (1939-1944)

Edited by Yolanda Morató (El Paso)

Chaves Nogales (Seville, 1897-London, 1944) is one of the great chroniclers of Spain and Europe during the most turbulent periods of the 20th century: the Spanish Civil War and the Second World War. These three volumes (From Paris, In London, and Last Chronicles) collect the journalistic pieces that Chaves Nogales wrote about the great

war that changed the world. A harrowing portrait of the darkness and cruelty of which human beings are capable when led by delusional powerful figures, and its effects on ordinary people, on life trying to continue its course amidst countless obstacles.

• Reed the review and an excerpt from the book HERE.

2. Pessoa: A Biography

Richard Zenith. Translated by Ignacio Vidal-Folch (Acantilado)

Capturing the true Pessoa, the one with the duplicity of his heteronyms, is no easy task; he is always elusive and enigmatic. But here we see a Pessoa surrounded by the world he lived in. A biography that “gathers a wealth of valuable information, the work of dozens of Pessoa researchers, which has emerged over the last few decades about his life and writing habits”, said Ignacio Vidal-Folch, the book’s translator.

• Read the the review and an excerpt from the book HERE.

3. Hannah Arendt: An Intellectual Biography. Thomas Meyer. Translated by José Rafael Hernández Arias (Anagrama). Read the book review HERE.

4. The Dark Renaissance: The Turbulent Life of Shakespeare’s Great Rival. Stephen Greenblatt Translation: Yolanda Fontal (Crítica).

5. Carmen Martín Gaite. A Biography. José Teruel (Tusquets). Read the book review HERE.

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Comics, Graphic Novels, and Illustrated Books

1. The Once and Future Riot

Joe Sacco. Translated by Montserrat Meneses Vilar (Reservoir Books)

Maltese journalist and cartoonist Joe Sacco (65 years old, 1960) is one of the most important graphic novel authors of recent decades. For thirty years, he has chronicled the world’s fracturing and the most terrible aspects of humanity, both individually and collectively, through books based on his visits to conflict zones. He delves into violence, exploring both its consequences and its roots, as well as the ways in which people and governments manage it: from Palestine to the Balkans. He even examines less publicized places like the Muzaffarnagar riots in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, where dramatic situations unfolded in 2013 due to ethnic and religious tensions, which he depicts in The Once and Future Riot.

• Read the the review and an excerpt from the book HERE.

2. Santa Claus’s Childhood

Benjamin Lacombe (illustrations) and Sébastien Perez (text). Translation: Elena Gallo Krahe (Edelvives)

French artist Benjamin Lacombe (43 years old / Paris, 1982) wondered one day what Santa Claus’s childhood was like, what led him to become the mythical figure he represents, and what the origins were of the various elements that make up this rich Christmas imagery: from the Christmas tree, the gifts, and the reindeer to the star and Mrs. Claus. So he proposed to writer Sébastien Perez that they imagine, recreate, and write these origins. The result is 24 stories, like an Advent calendar, as simple, ingenious, and believable as they are beautifully illustrated by Lacombe.

• Interview with the two authors coming soon.

3. Paul at Home. Michel Rabagliati (Astiberri). Read the review and a preview of the book HERE.

4. In Vela. Ana Penyas (Salamandra Graphic).

5. How the rich are plundering the planet. And how to stop them. Hervé Kempf and Juan Mendez. Translation: Monserrat Terrones (Garbuix Books). Read the the review and an excerpt from the book HERE.

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Short Stories

1.Good and Evil

Samanta Schweblin (Random House)

Argentine author Samanta Schweblin (47 years old / Buenos Aires, 1978) has returned to publishing after a seven-year hiatus since her novel Kentukis (2018), captivating readers and critics alike and arousing admiration for the expansion of her unsettling universe. She reveals that so-called normality is humanity’s greatest fiction. Schweblin, with her subtle and profound prose that resonates with readers, “takes another step in her extraordinary way of peering into the unsettling future that looms in everyday life. A narrative that draws the reader into an ambiguous dimension where her characters inhabit worlds that appear normal to everyone, but in whose shadows strange elements, like lurking fears, conspire to alter their lives and leave a trail of uncertainty, wonder, pain, unease, or questions”, wrote Santiago Vargas in WMagazín about this book.

• Read the article about the book HERE.

2. What Is Not Seen

Cristina Fernández Cubas (Tusquets)

“Unveiling the hidden or invisible corners within ourselves and the everyday life that surrounds us is what the Spanish author Cristina Fernández Cubas (80 years old / Barcelona, ​​1945) does in her short stories. The Spanish writer constructs ordinary stories that carry within them something unsettling, as they hint at unrecognizable spaces or characters that the reader doesn’t want to acknowledge or see, and that is where part of her success lies: involving the reader in what happens to the characters while planting the seed in their own life”, wrote Maribel Lienhard about this book in WMagazín.

• Read the book review HERE

3. The Connoisseurs. Mircea Cărtărescu. Translation: Marian Ochoa de Eribe (Impedimenta).

4. I’m Not Going Anywhere. Rumena Bužarovska. Translation: Krasimir Tasev (Impedimenta). Read the interview with Rumena Bužarovska HERE.

5. The Sick Machines. Alberto Chimal (Páginas de Espuma). You can see the review and a video of the author reading a passage HERE.

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Debuts and Discoveries

1.Baiôa Without a Death Date

Rui Couceiro. Translated by Antonio Jiménez Morato (Siruela)

The Portuguese writer Rui Couceiro (41 years old / Porto, 1984) debuted with the novel Baiôa Without a Death Date, a highly relevant work about the manifestation of Time in things, in memory, in emotions, and in human actions. He approaches it from a neo- magical realist perspective because, as he said in an interview with WMagazín, “perhaps it’s a need to create stories in the face of a reality that is so bad, so harsh”. Couceiro’s story highlights the dissonances of human beings in the face of life in the city and in the countryside, and sounds the alarm about the mirages that society pursues in its new ways of life.

•  Read the interview with Rui Couceiro HERE.

2. You Will Eat Flowers

Lucía Solla Sobral (Libros del Asteroide)

The debut novel by Spanish author Lucía Solla Sobral (36 years old / Marín, Galicia, 1989) explores how the need to love can sometimes lead to an unequal and abusive relationship. You Will Eat Flowers recreates love as an irreplaceable and unsolicited reality, as well as its mirage with its dual nature as both salvation and trap. A love story and a tale of the many kinds of love that sustain existence. In addition to examining the pervasiveness of abuse, the novel delves into that secret, unknown, or furtive need that people have to love and be loved.

• Read the book review and watch a video of the author reading a passage HERE.

3. Orbital. Samantha Harvey. Translation: Albert Fuentes (Anagrama). Read the review HERE.

4. Niñapájaroglaciar. Mariana Matija (Almadía, in Spain, / Rey Naranjo, in Colombia). Read the review HERE.

5. The Infinite Age. Miriam Reyes (Tránsito). Read the review HERE.

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Non Fiction: Cultural and Literary

1.Women Who Breastfeed Wolf Cubs

Adriana Cavarero. Translated by David Paradela López (Galaxia Gutenberg)

The renowned Italian philosopher Adriana Cavarero (78 years old/ Bra, 1947) creates a cartography of what the female body and motherhood mean beyond the sacralized image, recounting their reality between philosophy and narrative. She engages in dialogue with female writers and thinkers throughout history, while also invoking philosophers and figures from classical mythology who reinforce this reality, eclipsed or manipulated by the history of a patriarchal social structure. Her essay reminds us how individualism, driven by a self that distorts freedom, converges on five key issues that, right now, act as tectonic plates defining part of the future: women, trans identity, romantic and sexual relationships, the exercise of power among women, and knowledge about the real world of femininity.

• Read the interview with Adriana Cavarero HERE.

2. Spirits of the Present: The Last Years of Philosophy and the Beginning of a New Enlightenment 1948–1984 (Theodor W. Adorno, Susan Sontag, Michel Foucault, and Paul K. Feyerabend)

Wolfram Eilenberger Translation: Joaquín Chamorro Mielke (Taurus)

The German thinker Wolfram Eilenberger (53 years old / Freiburg, 1972) concludes his trilogy on the history of 20th-century philosophy with Spirits of the Present (Time of the Magicians: The Great Decade of Philosophy 1919–1929 –Ludwig Wittgenstein, Walter Benjamin, Ernst Cassirer, and Martin Heidegger– and The Fire of Freedom: The Salvation of Philosophy in Times of Darkness 1933–1943 -Simone de Beauvoir, Simone Weil, Ayn Rand, and Hannah Arendt), exploring its influence in the 21st century and how it helps explain aspects of our current situation. His multifaceted approach to understanding the world has led him to examine a series of fundamental 20th-century philosophers. He has recounted the lives of philosophers who interpreted and represented the era in which they lived. Eilenberger presents these ideas, studies, theories, and philosophical thoughts alongside the lives of their creators, intertwined with the world around them.

• Read the interview with Wolfram Eilenberger HERE.

3. Black Paper: Writing in Dark Times. Teju Cole. Translated by Miguel Temprano (Acantilado). Read the the review and an excerpt from the book HERE.

4. Desire and Destiny: Woke, the Decline of Culture, and the Victory of Kitsch. David Rieff. Translated by Aurelio Major (Debate). Interview with the author coming soon.

5. Paradise, or On Happiness in Libraries. Joaquín Rodríguez (Tusquets). Read the interview with the author HERE.

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Non Fiction: General

1.Europe in Chains: Neoliberalism Against the Union

Sami Naïr. Translation: Esther Pomares Cintas (Galaxia Gutenberg)

The French philosopher, sociologist, and political scientist Sami Naïr (79 years old / Algeria, 1946) presents an analysis of the European Union’s successes and failures, warns of a changing era, and urges Europeans to defend it without hesitation and become self-reliant. This essay is particularly timely now that Donald Trump, President of the United States, seems to be turning his back on the EU and global geopolitics has shifted. The author explains that it is time for Europe to truly unite and take control of its own destiny, its values, principles, sovereignty, security, and the ideals of democracy, equality, justice, freedom, well-being, integration, and harmony that have made it an exception in the world.

• Read the interview with Sami Naïr HERE.

2. The Society of Distrust. How to Regain Trust in a World Without a Moral Dimension in Politics and Everyday Life

Victoria Camps (Arpa)

“The problem we have today with freedom is that it has created a type of person insensitive to the needs of others, who is self-absorbed and feels neither concerned nor committed to problems that don’t directly affect them”, writes the Spanish intelectual Victoria Camps (84 years old / Barcelona 1941). The regression or involution of people in the face of the concept of collaboration, solidarity, or working in groups or teams has resulted in a world and a society with more tragedies, more loss, and therefore, more pessimism, discontent, and distrust. Without denying reality, Camps calls for us to reorganize ourselves around what unites us and benefits everyone. In short, she calls for solidarity to give real and harmonious meaning to life. The question is: what happens when we stop believing in the common good? wrote Santiago Vargas in his review for WMagazín.

• Rea the book review HERE.

3. That Thing with Feathers: The Surprising Life of Birds and What They Reveal About Humanity. Noah Strycker. Translated by Alejandro Pérez Sáez (Capitán Swing). Read the the review and an excerpt from the book HERE.

4. The Laughter of the Medusa: The 1975 Manifesto. Hélène Cixous. Translated by Arnau Miquel Pons Roig and Segarra Mon (Cátedra). Read the the review and an excerpt from the book HERE.

5. The World After Gaza: A Short History. Pankaj Mishra. Translated by Amelia Pérez de Villar Herranz (Galaxia Gutenberg). Read the the review and an excerpt from the book HERE.

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Novel in Spanish

Medea Sang Me a Ballad

Dahlia de la Cerda (Sexto Piso)

A literary and human adventure is what Mexican author Dahlia de la Cerda (40 years old / Aguascalientes, Mexico, 1985) undertakes in this novel. She blends Greek myth with the reality of her country to address violence against women, the pain of mothers searching for their children, the freedom to choose motherhood, and men forced to participate in war. And the beauty that lies hidden. Satire, fable, thriller, and neo- magical realism because reality falls short. A daring, vibrant, and energetic novel.

• Read the interview with Dahlia de la Cerda HERE.

2. Feliza’s Names

Juan Gabriel Vásquez (Alfaguara)

Feliza’s Names is a fictionalized biography that tells how two circles closed: the circle of the extraordinary life of the Colombian artist Feliza Bursztyn, of Jewish origin, who fought for her identity and, unknowingly, was buried where she wished and “died of sadness”, according to Gabriel García Márquez; and the circle of Juan Gabriel Vásquez (52 years old / Bogotá, 1973), who read the story of Feliza’s death in his youth, when he dreamed of becoming a writer in Paris. The author takes these two stories to a new dimension where reality, fiction, and memory converge in precise prose, full of sensitivity and lyrical imagery.

• Read the interview with Juan Gabriel Vásquez HERE.

3. The Madman of God at the End of the World. Javier Cercas (Random House). Read the interview with Cercas HERE.

4. Until It Begins to Shine. Andrés Neuman (Alfaguara). Read the interview with Neuman HERE.

5. Opposition. Sara Mesa (Anagrama). Read the review of the novel HERE.

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Novel translated into Spanish

1.The Director

Daniel Kehlmann. Translation: Isabel García Adánez (Random House)

German writer Daniel Kehlmann (50 years old/Munich, 1975) has created a work of fiction about the life of G. W. Pabstdel, creator of films such as Pandora’s Box, who, after traveling to Hollywood due to Hitler’s rise to power, returned for personal reasons and, little by little, was swallowed up by Nazism. More than about good and evil and their shifting sands, about morality or the price of principles, The Director speaks of the power of beauty and the power of words, of the battle waged with both when they are manipulated—that is, the battle of language—to construct and deconstruct the world in an infinite loop. A story that unfolds during World War II in the heart of the Third Reich and that functions as an echo resonating in this third decade of the 21st century.

• Read the review and an excerpt from Daniel Kehlmann’s novel HERE.

2. The Emperor of Gladness

Ocean Vuong. Translated by Daniel Saldaña París (Anagrama)

The Vietnamese-American poet and novelist Ocean Vuong (37 years old / Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon, 1988) became one of the most promising poets of the 21st century at the age of 28 in 2016 with Night Sky with Fire Wounds, and in 2019 he expanded his repertoire to the novel, infused with poetry, On Earth We Are Briefly Gorgeous (Anagrama). While that novel ended with a young man about to jump from a bridge, in this one, The Emperor of Gladness, an older woman speaks to him from the other side. “They will both end up sharing life’s journey, she with cognitive difficulties, and he with the lucidity to do everything possible to get out of their current situation”, according to Maribel Lienhard. A narrative of great sensitivity and beauty.

• Read the review of Ocean Vuon’s novel HERE.

3. The Guardian Angel. Fleur Jaeggy. Translated by Mariano Solivellas (Tusquets). Read the review of the novel HERE.

4. I’ll Take the Fire. Leila Slimani. Translated by Malika Embarek López (Cabaret Voltaire).

5. The Only Thing That Matters Is Summer. Francesco Pecoraro (Periférica). Read the review of the novel HERE.

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Poetry

1. Among Creatures and Things: Collected Poems (1984-2024)

Juan Antonio González Iglesias (Visor)

Ten books live and converse in this volume. The voice of Juan Antonio González Iglesias (Salamanca, 1964) is both singular and many, unfolding in two, where the human -or humanism- intimate, private, collective, and public, is present as both a reminder and a call. These are poems of classical character that sing of and summon the best in humanity, where love permeates everything as desire, solace, refuge, and salvation. The poet writes: “To be among creatures and things means ordering the world and taking a position within it: a sweetly intermediate position, inspired by the one Giovanni Pico assigned to the first human being: ‘I placed you in the middle of the world so that you might see everything in greater detail”.

• Read the review of the poetry collection HERE.

2. Scenes of Language

María Negroni (Kriller71 editions)

Language, the word that is the soul, body, and tool of poets, in the work of Argentine poet María Negroni (Rosario, 1951), reaches out toward the invisible, toward what is unseen, yet is there to complete the world. Her poems here, like the prose in her narrative works, attempt to unravel that borderland that holds the secret of naming.

• Read the review of the poetry collection HERE.

3. Coming from So Far Away. Eloy Sánchez Rosillo (Tusquets). Read the review of the poetry collection HERE.

4. Guest of the Other. Menchu ​​Gutiérrez (Árdora). Read the review of the poetry collection HERE.

5. Ignorances. Javier Velaza (Visor). Read the review of the poetry collection HERE.

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First Person

1.Inés

Elena Garro (Espinas)

With the rediscovery of this autobiographical novel, Elena Garro (Mexico, 1916–1998), the Mexican writer, consolidates her prestigious place in 20th-century Spanish-language literature and the Latin American Boom. Her work, Inés, is proof of her ideas and narrative mastery, transforming her life with Octavio Paz into literature: real life as a journey toward a nightmare of pain and cruelty inflicted by the person you love and trust, in a prose where diverse realities and denunciations converge. Inés is a point where timelines of various realities meet: the real, the dreamed, the imagined, the surreal, the imposed by others, and the reality of real, social, and atavistic fears. Elena Garro makes the reader a witness to her journey. All of these elements blend and créate a new reality with a natural prose, like that of a notary or witness, unburdened by embellishments. It is a clear, confident, trembling, serene, or emotional voice, depending on the moment, within an unreal, at times nightmarish reality.

• Read review of Inés, by Elena Garro, and an excerpt HERE.

2. The Gardener and Death

Georgui Gospodinov. Translated by María Vútova (Impedimenta)

The pain and emptiness of a son facing his father’s death, and the complexities of father-son relationships, find a space of reality and emotion in this novel. Georgi Gospodinov (Bulgaria, 1968), winner of the International Booker Prize for Refuge of Time, recounts the months he watched his father’s life slip away. It is from these final moments that he relives the story of his father and his relationship with him, with them. Emotions, grief, memory, questions. How does a son cope with the collapse of the hero who protected him? And how do we face the absence of those who made us who we are? “It’s a story about fathers and sons, about the peculiar culture of silence that often envelops them and can taint even the deepest bonds. A muteness that ironically marked the author’s life, since his father was a very quiet man and, at the same time, a sublime storyteller”, the publisher notes.

• Read the book review HERE.

3. Question 7. Richard Flanagan. Translation: Catalina Martínez Muñoz (Libros del Asteroide). Review coming soon.

4. The Illusionists. Marcos Giralt Torrente (Anagrama).Read the book review HERE.

5. Now and in the Hour. Héctor Abad Faciolince (Alfaguara). Read the book review HERE.

• With translation assistance from Robert Lienhard.

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The best books from 2017 to 2025, in WMagazín:

WMagazín’s 50 best books of 2025, by literary genre. You can see them at this link.

WMagazín’s 50 best books of 2024, by literary genre. You can see them at this link.

WMagazín’s 50 best books of 2023, by literary genre. You can see them at this link.

WMagazín’s 22 best books of 2022, by literary genre. You can see them at this link.

WMagazín’s 21 best books of 2021, by literary genre. You can see them at this link.

WMagazín’s 20 best books of 2020, by literary genre. You can see them at this link.

WMagazín’s 19 best books of 2019, by literary genre. You can see them at this link.

WMagazín’s 18 best books of 2018, by literary genre. You can see them at this link.

WMagazín’s 17 best books of 2017, by literary genre. You can see them at this link.

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Other articles from our English edition that may interest you:

This is how life, beauty, love, sex, and happiness have changed in the 21st century, according to 250 writers, artists, philosophers, sociologists, and scientists. Read the article about the book HERE.

László Krasznahorkai, 2025 Nobel Laureate in Literature: “Human beings remain the same, dangerous to themselves”. You can watch it HERE.

Complete series of Artificial intelligence in the world of books and literature:

• Artificial Intelligence in the World of Books and Literature (1): Authorship and the New Role of Humans in Creation. You can watch it HERE.
• Artificial Intelligence in the World of Books and Literature (2): Writing and creativity in the posthumanist era. You can read the article HERE.
• Artificial intelligence in the world of books and literature (3): Cultural revolution and paradigm shift. You can read the article HERE.

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