Magical Realism

Published in 2013, The Golem and the Jinni is Helene Wecker’s debut novel. As its title implies, the novel follows the story of a Golem named Chava and a Jinni named Ahmad as they navigate the chaotic realities of New York City in 1899 and 1900. Even as they both struggle to hide their true natures and blend into their local communities, they learn to trust each other on the difficult path to reconciling their... Read The Golem and the Jinni Summary

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The Grass Dancer (1994) is the debut novel by Susan Power, an enrolled member of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe. This young adult novel is part of the magical realism genre. Using a nonlinear structure and overlapping narratives, Power slowly pieces together a story that links generations of Sioux families together in a complex and powerful way. The following material was gathered using a first edition copy of the text.Plot SummaryThe Prologue begins with Harley... Read The Grass Dancer Summary

“The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World” is a short story written by Colombian author Gabriel García Márquez. Originally published in 1968 and titled “El ahogado más hermoso del mundo,” the story is a work of magical realism, a genre that treats magical or fantastical elements as though they were normal, everyday occurrences.Set on a summer day in a small coastal village in South America, the story concerns the villagers’ reaction to the discovery of... Read The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World Summary

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South African novelist Zakes Mda published his satirical work The Heart of Redness in 2000. In the novel, Mda blends history, myth, and realist fiction to portray a South African village over a 150-year span. In 1856, a 15-year-old girl from kwaXhosa named Nongqawuse told her uncle, Mhlakaza, that she had encountered the spirits of two of her ancestors. These spirits told the young girl that if the amaXhosa killed all their cattle, destroyed their... Read The Heart Of Redness Summary

The House in the Cerulean Sea (2020) is a queer fantasy novel by TJ Klune, Lambda Award-winning author of The Extraordinaires and the Green Creek series. Klune is a queer author whose works often explore supernatural elements. Many mythological species feature in this novel, while other books focus on werewolves, ghosts, and the like. The book explores themes of Nature Versus Nurture, The Perpetuation of Prejudice, and Found Family.Klune’s work, particularly The House in the... Read The House in the Cerulean Sea Summary

The House of the Spirits (1982) is Chilean writer Isabel Allende’s debut novel. The family saga follows the journey of the Trueba family across three generations. Set in an unnamed Latin American country (widely believed to be Chile), the family’s journey is interwoven with the sociopolitical history of their nation and the events that unfold over the span of half a century.Isabel Allende is one of the world’s most widely read Spanish-language authors. First published... Read The House of the Spirits Summary

Written by Luis Alberto Urrea in 2005, The Hummingbird’s Daughter is a fictional account of the life of Teresa Urrea, a woman whose mystical powers and religious fervor earned her the reputation of a living saint in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Luis Alberto Urrea is a distant cousin of Teresa and grew up hearing about her. He eventually researched her life through his family connections and the communities that she helped. The novel... Read The Hummingbird's Daughter Summary

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Jessamy Harrison is an eight-year-old girl living in a small town in England. Her father is English, and her mother is Nigerian. Jess is a smart, introverted child who likes to spend her time reading books and playing inside. Jess’s parents take her on a trip to Nigeria to visit her extended family. While staying at her grandfather’s compound, Jess sees strange shadows in the windows of the Boys’ Quarters, a building that was once... Read The Icarus Girl Summary

The Immortalists is a 2018 New York Times bestselling novel by Chloe Benjamin. In the Prologue, the four Gold children, Varya, Daniel, Klara, and Simon, visit a Romani fortuneteller named Bruna Costello. Bruna predicts when each of the children will die. The novel’s four parts describe each sibling’s path through life, and, in the end, three of them—Simon, Klara, and Daniel—all die exactly when Bruna predicted.Simon Gold moves to San Francisco after the death of... Read The Immortalists Summary

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The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue is a historical fantasy novel by the American author V.E. Schwab published in 2020. It chronicles the story of Addie LaRue, an 18th-century Frenchwoman who gains eternal life through a bargain with a demonic entity. However, the deal comes at a great cost: Everybody who meets Addie immediately forgets her. A New York Times bestseller, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue received a 2020 Goodreads Choice Award nomination for... Read The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue Summary

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Ruth Hogan’s 2017 debut novel The Keeper of Lost Things is a romance infused with elements of the paranormal and the magical. Hogan, a career civil servant in the UK, was approaching 50 when the book was published. A prolonged recovery from a car accident and then a struggle with cancer gave her the opportunity to devote time to what had been her childhood passion for storytelling. A voracious reader, she had been writing short... Read The Keeper of Lost Things Summary

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First published in 2005, Kingdom Keepers: Disney After Dark is a fantasy-adventure for middle-grade readers by Ridley Pearson. Young Finn Whitman and his fellow Disney Hosts each night turn into holograms who visit the Magic Kingdom, where they must defeat a cadre of evil Disney characters trying to break out of the park and take over the world. Winner of the Sunshine State Young Readers Award, the book is the first of more than a... Read The Kingdom Keepers: Disney After Dark Summary

The Kingdom of This World, written by Alejo Carpentier and originally published in 1949, traces events in 20th-century Haiti, beginning in the French colonial period and spanning the lifetime of protagonist Ti Noël. This novella is a work of dark magical realism and tells the story of two attempted rebellions against the French, the eventual reign of King Henri Christophe, the nation’s first Black king, and his downfall. Through Ti Noël’s perspective, the novella shows... Read The Kingdom Of This World Summary

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