Waterstones Book of the Year Shortlist: Diverse & Exciting Reads

Waterstones announces its Book of the Year shortlist, featuring diverse titles across fiction, non-fiction, and children's categories, celebrating both established authors and exciting new voices. Motivational nutrients, pure avoidance, and jump-scares are presented.

Non-Fiction Highlights

The non-fiction option ranges from Craftland by broadcaster James Fox (Vintage Publishing) and Sea by David Attenborough and Colin Butfield( John Murray Press) to Mel Robbins’ The Allow Them To Concept and Tim Siadatan’s Padella (Bloomsbury).

“These 15 titles stand for a superb year for publishing throughout categories, with books which define present fads and spearhead new ones,” claimed Bea Carvalho, head of books at Waterstones. “Below our booksellers promote writers at the height of stunning careers, and long-awaited publications which showed up with excitement, along with remarkably amazing new voices and word of mouth smash-hits. There is something for every reading need: from motivational nutrients to pure avoidance, by means of sensational pursuits and jump-scares.”

Fiction Shortlist Highlights

In fiction, Natasha Brown’s Booker Prize-longlistedUniversality (Faber) is featured on the shortlist, alongside Uketsu’s Strange Pictures (Pushkin Press). William Maxwell’s So Long, See You Tomorrow (Vintage Posting) and Antonia Hodgson’s The Raven Scholar (Hodder & Stoughton) are also featured on the list, alongside the 2025 Waterstones Launching Fiction Prize-winning The Artist by Lucy Steeds (John Murray Press).

RF Kuang’s Katabasis (HarperCollins), Suzanne Collins’ Sunrise on the Reaping (Scholastic) and Arundhati Roy’s Mommy Mary Concerns Me (Penguin Books) have been shortlisted for the Waterstones Book of the Year honor.

Carvalho added: “The shortlist celebrates the grandeur of the environment and the heights of human creative thinking, from old crafts to the radiance of an easy plate of pasta. More youthful visitors can delight in the madcap and the enchanting, with publications which prioritise motivating a happiness in reading.”

Children’s Books Selection

Ocean by David Attenborough and Colin Butfield (John Murray Press) Universality by Natasha Brown (Faber) Donut Squad: Take Over the World! by Neill Cameron (David Fickling Books) Dawn on the Enjoying by Suzanne Collins (Scholastic) Craftland by James Fox (Vintage Publishing) The Raven Scholar by Antonia Hodgson (Hodder & Stoughton) Alice with a Why by Anna James (HarperCollins) Katabasis by RF Kuang (HarperCollins) So Long, See You Tomorrow by William Maxwell (Vintage Posting) The Café at the Edge of the Woods by Mikey Please (HarperCollins) The Allow Them To Concept by Mel Robbins (Hay Home) Mommy Mary Comes to Me by Arundhati Roy (Penguin Books) Padella by Tim Siadatan (Bloomsbury Publishing) The Musician by Lucy Steeds (John Murray Press) Unusual Photos by Uketsu (Pushkin Press).

In Children’s, the shortlisted titles are Alicewith a Why by Anna James (HarperCollins), Donut Squad: Take Over the Globe! by Neill Cameron (David Fickling Books) and the Waterstones Children’s Book Champion The Coffee Shop at the Edge of the Woods by Mikey Please (HarperCollins).

The shortlist features titles that Waterstones booksellers took pleasure in advising to visitors over the previous year. The champion will certainly be chosen by a Waterstones panel and will be announced on 27th November.