I get so excited when I find a perfect novel. Let me tell you, my standards are probably way too high for novels. I let nonfiction authors get away with questionable writing if their book contains great ideas. But in my personal conception—and please do feel free to disagree—a novel should contain great ideas and be artistically crafted. So today I’m thrilled to share with you what I think the absolute best novel of 2025 so far is. And I know it will be one of the best books of 2025, when the year is said and done.
What is the best novel of 2025 so far? What is one of the best books of 2025?
This perfect novel is called Audition, by Katie Kitamura.
Kitamura is an American author of several novels. Her previous novel, Intimacies, won all sorts of acclaim and awards. It came out in 2021. I must’ve missed it amidst the pandemic and my concussion. (I just reserved it from the library and plan to read it soon.)
We all know that one should never judge a woman by her husband, but I noticed in researching Kitamura that she’s married to Hari Kunzru, whose novel Blue Ruin I enjoyed and wrote about last year on this blog.
Audition is short, less than 200 small pages. Its cover manages to be simultaneously complex and minimalistic.
Tell us more about the best novel of 2025 so far, one of the best books of 2025!
Audition is so very lovely to read. It’s like sinking into a precise dream. It’s a book to curl up with and savor. Every word is in its place.
The plot of Audition is impossible to describe without giving away spoilers. But I will say that something extremely unexpected happens at some point. You’ll know it when you get there. Your mind will reel. But it will all seem as normal as life.
And then you will begin thinking about the title of this novel, Audition. About the parts we wish to play in life, and so we perform our little auditions, in the workplace but also in our closest relationships.
This is a book that will make you think, and it will also make you feel. It’s not traumatic or weird or unsettling, but it is different. It’s also lovely and beautiful, like a mirror looking back on itself. Who are you?
Give us a passage from the best novel of 2025 so far, one of the best books of 2025!
Okay, but only since you asked. I’ll give you the opening paragraph, if that’s all right. As I said, I don’t want to spoil anything. This novel is just too good. So here’s how it begins:
“It seemed an unlikely choice, this large establishment in the financial district, so that I stood outside and checked the address, the name of the restaurant, I wondered if I had made a mistake. But then I saw him through the window, seated at a table toward the back of the dining room. I stared through the layers of glass and reflection, the frame of my own face. Something uncoiled in my stomach, slow and languorous, and I decided it would be better if I left now, and did not go in to him.”
Powerful, right? As a reader, you’re there with the protagonist, right there with her as she peers through the restaurant window. I love the phrase “the frame of my own face,” describing both the windowpane and her reflection within it. Then there’s the unknown (to the reader) male person inside waiting for her. Who is he? And why is she hesitant to meet him, when she’s already here?
We already have a sense of her personality, this protagonist who is so uncertain of herself and so careful in her decisionmaking. A lesser author would have already bludgeoned their protagonist through the restaurant door with a quip or clumsy expositional description, but not Kitamura. No, she lets each second unfold, and the reader holds their breath, waiting for her next move.
Conclusion
That’s all I’ll say about what is, in my opinion, the best novel of 2025 so far, and surely one of the best books of 2025. I hope you get a chance to enjoy it. Let me know what you think.
Are you auditioning for a role you’d like in your life?
Featured in this post: Audition by Katie Kitamura Buy it now
Also mentioned: Intimacies by Katie Kitamura Buy it now
