Need a reading list? From time-slipping fantasies to sharply observed immigrant tales, 2025’s release slate is already stacked. Here are a few new titles to catch up on in the second half of the year. Grab one, steal an afternoon, and let me know which title kept you up past midnight.

Nothing beats the thrill of cracking open a brand-new book. If your bookshelf needs a little shake-up, start here. We’ve rounded up the latest releases making literary noise. And yes, they’re totally worth the hype.

Nnedi Okorafor 

Zelu loses her job, her book deal, and her patience, then pours everything into a wild sci-fi manuscript about post-human androids. When the draft goes viral, fame crashes into reality and fiction starts rewriting itself. Blending meta-sci-fi, family drama and biting satire in a page-turner about art, fame, and unintended consequences, Okorafor’s latest novel asks the question: what if the story you created began creating you?

Akwaeke Emezi 

Twin bond, twin magic: Jayaike’s gifts dazzle, Somadina’s terrify. When Jayaike vanishes, Somadina braves the spirit-choked Sacred Forest to rescue him, mastering powers that could destroy her village or save it. Emezi crafts a luminous West-African fantasy about otherworldly journeys, outsiderhood, and the ferocity of sibling love.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 

Four women — travel writer Chiamaka, heartbroken lawyer Zikora, powerhouse cousin Omelogor, and immigrant housekeeper Kadiatou — navigate pandemic-era reckonings across two continents. Regret, ambition and tangled loyalties collide as Adichie probes love, honesty, and self-knowledge with her trademark wit and emotional clarity.

Lola Akinmade Åkerström 

Gambia, 1978: scholarship student Nancy falls for charming Swedish academic Lars, unaware of the darkness beneath his brilliance. Stockholm, 2006: pop-princess Tina digs into her mother’s guarded past to understand her own identity. Spanning four decades and three continents, this sweeping novel explores race, ambition, and the price of buried secrets.

Olufunke Grace Bankole 

A prophecy warns Amina’s mother that America will endanger her daughter, yet Amina still leaves Lagos for New Orleans, only to be upended by a devastating hurricane. Years later, Amina’s child searches for the lost pieces of their lineage. Folklore, faith and migration entwine in Bankole’s haunting debut about sacrifice and survival.

Lawretta Egba 

Homesick and restless, a young Nigerian writer lands in Paris armed with journal, camera, and a stubborn need to reinvent herself. Think café musings, metro-car flashbacks, and city lights that double as therapy sessions. Perfect for anyone who’s ever wanted to walk off their map.

M.H. Ayinde 

In the war-torn Nine Lands, only nobles summon ancestral spirits. That is until slum-born Temi calls forth something far older and deadlier. Her forbidden power could end centuries of bloodshed or unleash horror. Ayinde’s debut is an adrenaline-fuelled epic of revenge, class uprising, and spectral warfare.

The tiny things are heavier

Esther Ifesinachi Okonkwo 

June 2025

Two weeks after her brother’s suicide attempt, Sommy starts grad school in the US, burdened by guilt and rootlessness. A tangled romance and a return trip to Lagos force her to confront family fractures and self-worth. Okonkwo delivers a tender, incisive portrait of migration, mental health and messy love.