Spanning countries as far and wide as South Korea, Colombia, and Denmark—and including both emerging and acclaimed authors—the year is off to an exceptionally strong start. From the latest novel by Nobel Prize winner Han Kang to the outlandish fiction of Sayaka Murata and unapologetic new voices like Asta Olivia Nordenhof and Hon Lai Chu, these 2025 titles promise to confront the established order, speculate about potential futures, and resonate across borders. 

South Korea

We Do Not Part by Han Kang, translated from the Korean by e. yaewon and Paige Aniyah Morris

Nobel Prize and Booker International winner Han Kang, best known for Human Acts and The Vegetarian—returns with We Do Not Part, a novel steeped in her signature themes of memory, violence, and the fragility of existence. We follow Kyungha, an author who, asked by an ailing friend to travel to the southern isle of Jeju to care for her pet bird while the friend recovers, embarks on a journey that proves both physically and mentally taxing. Complex in form and deeply introspective, We Do Not Part delves into a largely forgotten part of South Korea’s painful past. Kang’s prose is sparse yet lyrical, creating an interior world where emotions take physical form, blurring the line between dream and reality—and offering a chilling call for remembrance.

Colombia

Río Muerto by Ricardo Silva Romero, translated from the Spanish by Victor Meadowcroft

Set in the forgotten village of Belén del Chamí, somewhere in Colombia, and told from the perspective of the ghost of a mute man, Salomón Palacios, Río Muerto is the story of a forgotten village living at the mercy of Colombia’s dark underbelly. The novel begins after the murder of the mute man, as his wife, Hipólita, is driven to madness and decides to confront the paramilitaries and politicians she holds responsible for her husband’s death. Refusing to go in peace until he knows his family is safe, Salomón gives voice to the voiceless, telling a story of collective trauma and personal resilience. In less than 200 pages, Ricardo Silva Romero grapples with the ripple effects of societal upheaval and state violence, in what is described as both an intimate and politically charged portrayal of Colombian village life. 

Denmark

Money to Burn by Asta Olivia Nordenhof, translated from the Danish by Caroline Waight

The first book in the Scandinavian Star series—named after the 1990 Scandinavian Star ferry fire, killing 159 people as part of an insurance scam—Money To Burn is an incendiary novel that follows empty-nesters Maggie and Kurt, who are struggling to keep their marriage afloat. At one time poor but deeply in love, the couple now finds themselves comfortably settled yet deeply unhappy. Exploring the brutality of capitalism through the lens of Maggie and Kurt’s relationship—who may or may not be connected to the Scandinavian Star incident—Nordenhof weaves a civic satire about how to love and care for each other in a society that demands constant productivity. The sequel is set to be published in September.

South Korea

Snowy Day and Other Stories by Lee Chang-dong, translated from the Korean by Yoosup Chang and Heinz Insu Fenkl

In his first collection of short stories published in English, Lee Chang-dong, one of South Korea’s most celebrated filmmakers and literary figures (best known for movies such as Burning and Poetry) explores domestic tensions, existential crises, betrayal, and injustice. Originally written in the 1980s—a time of great political unrest and military rule—the stories in Snowy Day touch on various aspects of South Korean life, both on the individual and collective scale. From the title story, based on Lee’s own time serving in the military, where the class divide between a university-educated private and working-class corporal ultimately has tragic consequences, to the novella “A Lamp in the Sky” wherein a woman gets brutally interrogated by the police, this collection offers an exploration of guilt and innocence, underpinned by loneliness and longing. 

Japan

Hunchback by Saou Ichikawa, translated by Polly Barton

Winner of the 2023 Akutagawa Prize, Saou Ichikawa’s Hunchback takes place in a care home and follows protagonist Shaka Isawa, whose physical differences—due to a congenital muscle disorder—keeps her wheelchair bound and shapes her sense of self, not to mention how the world perceives her. Spending most of her time online, studying, tweeting, and writing outrageous erotica, she one day makes an indecent proposal to her male carer, setting off a chain of events that are at once unsettling and funny. Hunchback promises a psychological exploration of desire, deformity, and the gaze of others, ultimately asking who is allowed to express their sexuality, and how—and inviting readers into a space where the body is at once a burden and a source of power.

Argentina

The Unworthy by Agustina Bazterrica, translated from the Spanish by Sarah Moses

Following the unsettling dystopian horror of Tender Is the Flesh, Agustina Bazterrica returns with The Unworthy, a novel that once again examines violence, hierarchy, and survival. This time, Bazterrica shifts her gaze toward a cataclysmic world where the very air could kill. To find shelter, a group of women have turned to the House of the Sacred Sisterhood: a brutal religious order run with an iron fist by Mother Superior, who herself only answers to a mysterious entity referred to as ‘Him’. In a series of letters, the protagonist recounts ceremonies, events, and nightly discoveries as Bazterrica touches on climate disaster, religious fanaticism, and, in the midst of all the darkness, the potential power of friendship. Gory and grotesque, this may not be for the faint of heart but for those who wish to delve deeper into the dark recesses of human nature. 

Hong Kong

Mending Bodies by Hon Lai Chu, translated from the Chinese by Jacqueline Leung

Originally published in 2010, Mending Bodies is a surrealist novel about a young woman squaring up against the forces of late capitalism, about bodily autonomy, and about what it might mean to be ‘free’. Set in a near-future dystopian city reminiscent of Hong Kong, a new law called the Conjoinment Act incentivizes men and women to physically stitch their bodies together once they come of age. As our protagonist—a student researching the history of the Conjoinment program—heads towards graduation, she starts to suffer from insomnia and attempts to resist her own joining. In doing so, she must confront forces in society, both bureaucratic and familial, urging her to conform. 

Japan

Vanishing World by Sayaka Murata, translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori

Sayaka Murata—the author behind Convenience Store Woman and Earthlings—returns with Vanishing World, another unsettling vision of a not-so-distant dystopian future. In a world where everyone is conceived through artificial insemination, Amane is not like everyone else. The product of a love marriage and born to parents who had sex to procreate, Amane does her best to fit in. So when she and her husband hear about an experimental society where residents—including men—are selected at random for artificial insemination, where children are raised collectively, and where the family unit does not exist, they decide to give it a go. With Murata’s signature deadpan prose and bizarre takes, Vanishing World delves into themes of erasure, identity, and belonging.

Sweden

When the Cranes Fly South by Lisa Ridzén, translated from the Swedish by Alice Menzies

A runaway bestseller in Sweden and reminiscent of Fredrik Backman’s A Man Called Ove, Lisa Ridzén’s When the Cranes Fly South is an elegy to the passing of time. Set against Sweden’s stark northern landscape, the novel follows Bo, an elderly man drifting in and out of a restless sleep as his care givers come and go. With his wife at a home for dementia, Bo takes comfort in his trusty companion, the Swedish elkhound Sixten, weekly phone calls with his long-time friend Ture, and the occasional visit from his son and granddaughter. But Bo is not happy with his son, who is trying to take Sixten away from him. In a more somber tone than that of Backman, Ridzen’s debut novel explores old age, regret, and how to live your last years with dignity when all you have left is time—something you will still never have enough of.

Spain

I Gave You Eyes and You Looked Towards Darkness by Irene Solá, translated from the Catalan by Mara Faye Lethem

Following her acclaimed novel When I Sing, Mountains Dance, Irene Solá’s I Gave You Eyes and You Looked Towards Darkness is a novel set high up in the remote Catalonian mountains. As an impossibly old woman lies on her deathbed, all the women who have lived and died in the house before her wait for her to join them. Through this ensemble, Solá begins to unspool 400 years worth of history, rooted in the landscape and in folklore. Expect poetic prose, shifting perspectives, and an intricate interplay between myth and reality from one of Catalonia’s most prominent contemporary authors.