Magical Realism

Shadow and Bone (2012) by Leigh Bardugo is a young adult fantasy adventure and romance novel. It is Bardugo’s debut novel and the first book in her Shadow and Bone trilogy, also called the Grisha trilogy. Inspired by 19th-century Tsarist Russia, Bardugo creates a darkly magical world characterized by strange armies, extreme wealth and poverty, and personifications of light and shadow. The novel was a New York Times best seller, a Los Angeles Times best... Read Shadow and Bone Summary

Written by Salman Rushdie in 1983, Shame takes place in a fictionalized version of the city of Quetta in Pakistan. Although several characters are based on historic Pakistani politicians, the novel incorporates elements of magical realism to create a richly nuanced fable whose philosophical message transcends the boundaries of the ordinary. The novel explores themes of Shame Versus Shamelessness, the partition of Pakistan through Partition and Duality, and The Systemic Misogyny of Patriarchal Societies. Shame... Read Shame Summary

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LeAnne Howe’s Shell Shaker was first published in 2001; this guide refers to the 2007 Kindle edition. Howe, a member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, is a professor of English specializing in Native American studies. A former Fulbright Scholar, Howe received a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012 from the Native Writers’ Circle of the Americas. Shell Shaker received an American Book Award in 2002.One on hand, the novel is a mystery about who killed... Read Shell Shaker Summary

Shoeless Joe (1982) by W.P. Kinsellais a magic realist novel that brings together stories about the Black Sox Scandal of the 1919 World Series by intermingling fantastic elements with the factual. The novel tells the story of Ray Kinsella, who lives with his wife Annie and five-year-old daughter, Karin, on a farm in Iowa, where he grows corn. The writer weaves the narrative around the importance of baseball in the collective memory of Americans, and... Read Shoeless Joe Summary

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Sing, Unburied, Sing is author Jesmyn Ward’s third novel, and her second (following 2011’s Salvage the Bones) to win the National Book Award for Fiction. Published in 2017, Sing, Unburied, Sing touches on many of the same issues Ward’s other novels do, including the racial and class divisions of the contemporary American South; the novel takes place against the backdrop of events like the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, as well as societal trends like... Read Sing, Unburied, Sing Summary

Slam (2007) is a young adult novel written by Nick Hornby. It tells the story of Sam Jones, a skateboarder who finds out that his girlfriend is pregnant when they are both 16 years old—his mother’s age when she had him. The novel explores themes such as Navigating Teenage Parenthood, How a Few Seconds Can Change Everything, and Relationships, Wisdom, and Growing Up.Nick Hornby is a renowned English writer known for his humorous fiction about... Read Slam Summary

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So Far from God, by Ana Castillo, follows the lives of Sofi and her four daughters Esperanza, Caridad, Fe, and La Loca. They live in the small town of Tome, New Mexico, and endure hardship after hardship. The novel moves back and forth in time fluidly, often visiting the same periods more than once to provide more information. At eighteen, Sofi marries Domingo, a disreputable gambler. After the birth of La Loca, Sofi banishes Domingo from... Read So Far from God Summary

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Toni Morrison’s novel Song of Solomon was published in 1977. Since then, the novel has won many awards, including the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction (1978). Morrison later won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for her novel Beloved (1988) and the Nobel Prize in Literature (1993). Song of Solomon, Morrison’s third novel, follows the life of Milkman Dead, who uncovers the truth (the “song”) about his family when he travels south to Virginia... Read Song of Solomon Summary

Son of a Trickster is a 2017 young adult realistic fantasy novel by Eden Robinson. The first book in Robinson’s Trickster trilogy, it was shortlisted for various Canadian awards and was a Canadian bestseller. Set in Robinson’s hometown of Kitimat, British Columbia, the story is informed by the author’s Haisla and Heiltsuk heritage. The novel contains mature themes including addiction, abuse, and self-harm.Plot SummaryThe protagonist is 16-year-old Jared, a Native boy who lives with his... Read Son of a Trickster Summary

Sophie's World is a young adult book by Norwegian author Jostein Gaarder. The book follows main character Sophie, a young girl who is fourteen years old and living with her parents in Norway. Sophie's life changes dramatically when she receives a series of strange postcards, which ask her large, existential questions about the world around her. Each day, Sophie receives a postcard, and in the evenings she receives a package from a man named Alberto... Read Sophie's World Summary

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St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves (2006) is a collection of 10 short stories by Karen Russell. The book, released when Russell was just 25, resulted in the National Book Foundation naming her one of its “5 Under 35” in 2009. Russell is also the recipient of the MacArthur Genius Grant, and her later novel, Swamplandia!, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Swamplandia! is based on the first short story... Read St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves Summary