The first memoir ever written by a sitting Pope; a new novel from the mighty Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie; Michael Morpurgo but for adults: 2025 is already set to be full of literary delights. The books team have trawled through the publishing catalogues and even managed to do some advance reading, so that we can bring you the very best and most promising books of the first half of the upcoming year. So clear your social diary, plump up your cushions and prepare for a year of great reading. Laura Hackett
Lazarus Man by Richard Price (Corsair £22)
The Clockers author, also a scriptwriter for The Wire, returns with a tale of mayhem set in Harlem. In 2008 a five-storey tenement collapses. We learn
