Best Books of the Year
Menu

PEN/Faulkner Foundation · award year

PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction 2025

The 2025 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction went to Small Rain by Garth Greenwell. 5 books were finalists and 10 books made the longlist.

Winner

  1. Small Rain by Garth Greenwellsource (opens in a new tab)

Finalists

  1. Behind You Is the Sea by Susan Muaddi Darrajsource (opens in a new tab)
  2. Colored Television by Danzy Sennasource (opens in a new tab)
  3. Ghostroots by 'Pemi Agudasource (opens in a new tab)
  4. James by Percival Everettsource (opens in a new tab)

Longlist

  1. Creation Lake by Rachel Kushnersource (opens in a new tab)
  2. Devil Is Fine by John Verchersource (opens in a new tab)
  3. The History of Sound by Ben Shattucksource (opens in a new tab)
  4. The Mighty Red by Louise Erdrichsource (opens in a new tab)
  5. There Is a Rio Grande in Heaven by Ruben Reyes Jr.source (opens in a new tab)

About the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction

Year is the award year (books published the prior calendar year). Winners and finalists from the PEN/Faulkner award page and announcement posts. Longlists of ten began in 2020; each book appears once, at its highest tier, so each year from 2020 has one winner, four finalists, and five longlist-only books.

Organization: PEN/Faulkner Foundation. Years are award years, which can differ from publication years. Official site (opens in a new tab)

The most recommended books of 2025

Shares the most books with