The 2025 Crossword Book Awards announces five book shortlists in five

Crossword Bookstores has announced its shortlists for the prestigious Crossword Book Awards 2025. The awards will be presented in five categories – Fiction, Non-fiction, Translations, Children’s Books, and Business and Management. The awards ceremony will be held in Mumbai on December 3. The winning authors will get a cash prize of Rs 50,000 each.

Aakash Gupta, CEO of Crossword Bookstores, said, “The Jury Shortlist represents the books that stood out for their originality, craft and impact. Each title has been carefully chosen by our esteemed jury for its contribution to contemporary writing and its ability to move, challenge, or inspire readers. These are the stories that reflect the very best of Indian literature today.”

Here are the shortlisted books in each category:

Nonfiction

Golwalkar: The Myth Behind the Man, The Man Behind the Machine, Dhirendra K Jha, Simon and Schuster India
Gods, Guns, and Missionaries: The Making Of The Modern Hindu Identity, Manu S Pillai, Penguin Random House India
The Lucky Ones: A Memoir, Zara Chowdhary, Westland
Iconoclast: A Reflective Biography of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar, Anand Teltumbde, Penguin Random House India
Lōal Kashmir: Love and Longing in a Torn Land, Mehak Jamal, HarperCollins Publishers India

Fiction

Great Eastern Hotel, Ruchir Joshi, HarperCollins Publishers India
Girls Who Stray, Anisha Lalvani, Bloomsbury India
An Unholy Drought, Madhulika Liddle, Speaking Tiger Books
Rising Sons, Kavery Nambisan, Penguin Random House India
The Fertile Earth, Ruthvika Rao, Penguin Random House India

Translation

Unlove Story, Sudipto Pal, translated from Bengali by Arunava Sinha, Seagull Books
The Day the Earth Bloomed, Manoj Kuroor, translated from Malayalam by J Devika, Bloomsbury India
Mudritha, Jissa Jose, translated from Malayalam by Jayashree Kalathil, HarperCollins Publishers India
Our City, That Year, Geetanjali Shree, translated from Hindi by Daisy Rockwell, Penguin Random House India
The Owl, the River and the Valley, Arupa Patangia Kalita, translated from Assamese by Mitra Phukan, Penguin Random House India

Business and Management

Ratan Tata: A Life, Thomas Mathew, HarperCollins Publishers India
Just a Mercenary?: Notes From My Life and Career, Duvvuri Subbarao, Penguin Random House India
Behold the Leviathan: The Unusual Rise of Modern India, Saurabh Mukherjea and Nandita Rajhansa, Penguin Random House India
The Dirty Dozen: The Untold Stories of India’s Twelve Biggest Corporate Gangsters, N Sundaresha Subramanian, PanMacmillan India
Sky High: The Untold Story of IndiGo, Tarun Shukla, HarperCollins Publishers India

Children’s books

The Wall Friends Club, Varsha Seshan, illustrated by Denise Antao, HarperCollins Publishers India
Kushti Kid, Vibha Batra, Scholastic India
Ajay of Agumbe and the Signal Snake, Zai Whitaker, illustrated by Rajiv Eipe, Pratham Books
The Book of Emperors, Ashwitha Jayakumar, illustrated by Nikhil Gulati, Penguin Random House India
The Body in the Swimming Pool, Shabnam Minwalla, Talking Cub Books