Bell Commends Brilliance

Three arguable thrillers and one coming-of-age tale with a serial-killing spree as its backdrop are among the dozen novels longlisted for the 2025 Glass Bell Award. This commendation, sponsored by London-based Goldsboro Books, has been given out every year since 2017 to one “outstanding work of contemporary fiction, rewarding quality storytelling in any genre.”

• The Warm Hands of Ghosts, by Katherine Arden (Century)
• The Cautious Traveller’s Guide to the Wastelands, by Sarah Brooks (Weidenfeld & Nicolson)
• The Book of Doors, by Gareth Brown (Bantam)
• James, by Percival Everett (Mantle)
• The List of Suspicious Things, by Jennie Godfrey (Hutchinson Heinemann)*
• The Silverblood Promise, by James Logan (Arcadia)
• Hunted, by Abir Mukherjee (Harvill Secker)*
• Berlin Duet, by S.W. Perry (Corvus)
• A Little Trickerie, by Rosanna Pike (Fig Tree)
• There Are Rivers in the Sky, by Elif Shafak (Viking)
• The Kellerby Code, by Jonny Sweet (Faber & Faber)*
• All the Colours of the Dark, by Chris Whitaker (Orion)*

(Asterisks identify the four crime-related works.)

If things go as usual, we can expect the release of a shortlist later this summer, with the winner to be announced in September.