11 New South Asian Books to Read in 2025

If you’re looking for South Asian books by South Asian authors about South Asian experiences, you’re in luck! 2025 brings a bumper crop of new titles with South Asian characters to shelves.

This roundup includes a bit of everything: a plea to South Asians to destigmatize mental health in the community; a coming-of-age family saga set in the aftermath of the Boxing Day tsunami that devastated Sri Lanka; a memoir about basketball and first loves; and a highly-anticipated horror debut, which is being hailed as “a true blood-soaked Southern Gothic for the modern age.”

Ready for a good read? Check out these 11 South Asian books below.

Divining the Leaves by Shveta Thakrar, March

In this romantic fantasy inspired by Hindu mythology, witchy Ridhi Kapadia and popular kid Nilesh Batra find an escape from the troubles of their mortal lives — Ridhi is bullied for her beliefs and Nilesh is reeling from his parents’ separation — in a lush and magical woodland realm, home to the nature spirits known as yakshas. “Readers fond of immersive storytelling will appreciate the sensate prose and worldbuilding,” writes Publishers Weekly in its review.

Maya in Multicolor by Swati Teerdhala, March

Teerdhala’s rivals-to-lovers college-set romance pairs Maya Sastry, set on planning the best Holi festival Needham University has ever seen, and Nishant Rai, Big Man on Campus whose ideas for #HoliFest, a flashy EDM festival, clash with Maya’s more traditional ones. Kirkus calls the book “bright and fun” and says, “The story… explores the leads’ personal insecurities and toxic exes alongside the vagaries of college life and event planning… A story of self-discovery and falling in love, with a dash of color and a sprinkle of breeziness.”

Messy Perfect by Tanya Boteju, April

When Cassie Perera’s former friend Ben returns to their conservative Catholic high school after a homophobic bullying incident had driven him away, Cassie founds an underground Gender and Sexuality Alliance as a peace offering, a way for making things up to him.

Complications arise — not only does Cassie attend a Catholic high school, but she also happens to be closeted. Cassie is “She’s an amalgamation of younger me… and lots of kids I’ve taught or known who walk a tightrope of trying to look or be a certain way to please others, fit in, or avoid being “known” for things they still don’t accept about themselves. She’s that kid fighting hard against her vulnerability, because that shit is scary,” says the author.

Fitting Indian by Jyoti Chand and Tara Anand (illus.), May

Influencer Chand’s debut graphic novel follows Nitasha as she navigates academic pressure and expectations from her traditional South Asian family, and turns to alcohol and self harm to cope. Chand wrote the book to shine a light on how harmful the mental illness stigma is — particularly in the South Asian community — and draws from personal experience. “For the longest time, I felt like I was the only Indian girl with anxiety and depression,” Chand told Psychology Today. “I felt like if I talked about it openly, I would be judged harshly. It was as if everyone was OK, and I wasn’t, and it was scary to face it all alone.”

Home Has No Borders by Samira Ahmed and Sona Charaipotra, May

This contemporary short story anthology explores race, class, culture, and language and grapples with themes of home and belonging. It features works by well-known South Asian writers (Fatimah Asghar, Tashie Bhuiyan, Tanuja Desai Hidier, Veera Hiranandani, Rajani LaRocca, Sheba Karim, Jasmin Kaur, Anuradha D. Rajurkar, and Navdeep Singh Dhillon among others) alongside new voices — librarian Rekha Kuver and attorney and legal scholar Kanwalroop Singh — gathered from an open call for submissions.

The Singular Life of Aria Patel by Samira Ahmed, May

In this speculative second-chance-romance, science-obsessed high school senior Aria Patel finds herself falling through parallel universes where she meets several versions of her ex-boyfriend. Ahmed is best-known for her contemporary, social justice themed novels (This Book Won’t Burn, Internment), and her romantic heroine has the same vibes. “Aria is very much the type of revolutionary girl character I like to write about,” she told Paste. “She’s smart, asks questions, makes mistakes, and is forced into a situation where she needs to find her courage to save someone she loves and maybe also save herself all while navigating an almost second-chance romance and the turmoil it causes her heart.”

Always Be My Bibi by Priyanka Taslim, June

When bratty Bibi Hossain travels to a dreamy tea resort in Bangladesh — for her oh-so-perfect sister Halima’s wedding to its heir — she finds herself falling for the groom’s infuriatingly handsome brother Sohel. Taslim (The Love Match) describes Bibi as a “Bengali Cher Horowitz… meddling in the love lives of everyone around her even as a romance of her own brews.” The book also “touches on Bangladesh’s history, its struggle for independence, and some of its growing pains — as very American Bibi learns about this beautiful place she’s never been to,” Taslim says.

Meet Me on Love Street by Farah Heron, June

Sana Merali, a free-spirited teen trying to save her mother’s flower shop, teams up with Miles Desai, a city planning student to organize a love-themed festival to save their Toronto neighborhood from gentrification, in this swoony grumpy-sunshine/opposites attract rom-com. “[It’s] my tribute to hopeless romantics and the young people who are committed to making our cities liveable for all,” Heron says.

When Devils Sing by Xan Kaur, June

When Neera Singh strikes a deal with a devil, she thinks it’s her chance to escape the poverty of her rural Georgia community; instead, she and three other teens are drawn into the investigation of another peer’s mysterious disappearance. The debut offers a biting “critique of the violent pursuit of the American Dream explored through a Southern Gothic lens,” Kaur says. “Part horror, part mystery, part small-town drama, it begs the questions: who gets to survive in rural America, and at what cost? Who is allowed to prosper?”

Tall Water by SJ Sindu and Dion MBD (illus.), August

Sindu’s (Shakti) YA graphic novel traces Nimmi’s journey to Sri Lanka to search for the mother who refused to leave the island in the midst of its brutal civil war. There, on Boxing Day, disaster strikes and a tsunami ravages the island, leaving Nimmi stranded amid the destruction. Sidhu left Sri Lanka when she was 7, and returned when she was 17 to visit. “This was right after the tsunami, and I saw for myself the devastation it had caused to the island, and ever since then, I’ve wanted to write about the tragedy,” she told me. “I’ve also wanted to write about my experiences in the civil war as a child, and this story gave me the opportunity to do both.”

Wish I Was a Baller by Amar Shah and Rashad Doucet (illus.), August

Illustrated by Eisner-winning comic creator Doucet, Shah’s (Play the Game) mid-‘90s-set graphic memoir follows the author’s real-life experiences as a teen sports journalist covering the golden era of the NBA and sparking an unlikely friendship with Shaquille O’Neal, while navigating the “high school caste system,” first loves, and his bifurcated Indian American identity. “The whole story [is] about how this kid, me, was trying to use journalism and covering the NBA to become popular, when I still didn’t even have the guts to ask the girl I wanted to go out with to prom,” he told the West Orange Times & Observer..