Our Book Challenge for August is “A Book with Magical Realism”. Magical Realism is a unique genre of fiction and one that resists easy characterization. Popularized by South American authors such as Gabriel García Márquez and Isabel Allende, Magical Realism has significant roots in Latin American literature and culture. At its core, Magical Realism is defined by the incorporation of fantastical elements into an otherwise normal or mundane world in order to comment on or shed light on real-world issues.

If you’re thinking this sounds a little like Fantasy, you’re not entirely wrong. The boundaries between fantasy and magical realism (like most genres) are hotly debated and can be very blurry. But while both incorporate fantastical elements, what separates magical realism from fantasy is its treatment of those magical elements. Magical Realism infuses the real world with a hint of magic which is neither explained nor explored by either the characters or the author themselves. Instead these fantastical elements are treated as matter-of-fact, creating a dream-like story that blurs the boundaries of logic and reality rather than creating a world of magic as Fantasy does The other defining feature of Magical Realism is that the magic in Magical Realism isn’t an escape from the real world, but is used as a means to explore social or political issues and themes. 

If you read any of our Magical Realism books from the booklist below or a book with Magical Realism of your own, fill out the form on our website here for a chance to win a prize!

One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel García Márquez

The internationally bestselling and critically acclaimed novel offers a rich and brilliant chronicle celebrating the endless variety of life in the mythical Latin American town of Macondo.

 

The Book of Form and Emptiness – Ruth Ozeki

Thirteen-year-old Benny Oh starts to hear voices after the death of his musician father. The voices belong to the things in his house such as a sneaker, a broken Christmas ornament, a piece of wilted lettuce. At first, Benny tries to ignore them, but soon the voices drive him to seek sanctuary in the silence of a large public library, where objects are quieter. There, Benny encounters a homeless philosopher-poet, who encourages him to ask important questions and find his own voice amongst the many. And he finds his very own Book, who narrates Benny’s life and teaches him to listen to the things that are important.

 

The In-Between Bookstore: a novel – Edward Underhill

When Darby, a nearly 30-year-old trans man, returns to his Illinois hometown after losing his job, he steps into his old high school bookstore and slips back in time, coming face-to-face with his pre-transition teenage self, offering him a chance to change the past and confront old wounds.

 

Other Birds – Sarah Addison Allen 

Right off the coast of South Carolina, on Mallow Island, The Dellawisp sits-a stunning cobblestone building shaped like a horseshoe and named after the tiny turquoise birds who, alongside its human tenants, inhabit an air of magical secrecy. When Zoey comes to claim her deceased mother’s apartment on Mallow Island, she meets her quirky and secretive neighbors, including a girl on the run, two estranged middle-aged sisters, a lonely chef, a legendary writer, and three ghosts. Each with their own story. Each with their own longings. Each whose ending isn’t written yet.

 

Before the Coffee Gets Cold: a novel – Toshikazu Kawaguchi

A small cafe has something odd and magical—if someone sits in a particular chair and a cup of coffee is poured, they can travel to the past for as long as it takes their cup to cool. In this slender story, the lives of visitors and staff intertwine, and four hopeful people sit in the chair. 

 

Lapvona – Ottessa Moshfegh

As record drought and famine plague the village, a young shepherd boy finds himself caught in a power struggle between his people and their depraved lord and governor when occult forces arise to upset the old order.

 

Jimi Hendrix live in Lviv: a novel – Andreĭ Kurkov

Strange, almost magical, things are afoot in Lviv. A ragtag group of aging hippies gather around a mysterious grave in Lychakiv Cemetery. Among them are an ex-KGB officer and the old subversive he once spied upon. Soon, Captain Ryabtsev and Alik Olisevych band together to uncover the source of the city’s “anomalies.” Meanwhile, across Lviv, Taras, a cab driver, ferries kidney-stone patients over cobblestone streets in his ancient Opel Vectra. He’s wooing Darka, a woman who works nights at a currency exchange. The young lovers don’t know it, but their fate depends on the two lonely old men, relics of a bygone era, who will stop at nothing to save their city.

 

What is Not Yours is Not Yours: Stories – Helen Oyeyemi 

A collection of stories by the award-winning author of Boy, Snow, Bird features entries about literal and metaphorical keys that open or shut the fates of lovers, the heart of a puppeteering student and the doors of a house of locks that holds unobservable developments.

 

The Ghost Cat: a novel – Alex Howard

Early morning, 1902. At 7/7 Marchmont Crescent, Eilidh the charlady tips coal into a fire grate and sets it alight. Overhearing, Grimalkin the cat ambles over to curl up against the welcome heat and lick his favorite human’s hand. But this is to be his last day on earth…before he becomes the Ghost Cat. Follow Grimalkin as he witnesses the changes of the next 120 years, prowling unseen among the inhabitants of an Edinburgh tenement while unearthing some startling revelations about the mystery of existence, the unstoppable march of time and the true meaning of feline companionship.

 

Chouette – Claire Oshetsky

Tiny is pregnant. “You think this baby is going to be like you, but it’s not like you at all,” she warns him. “This baby is an owl-baby.” When Chouette is born small and broken-winged, Tiny works around the clock to meet her daughter’s needs. Left on her own to care for a child who seems more predatory bird than baby, Tiny vows to raise Chouette to be her authentic self. Even in those times when Chouette’s behaviors grow violent and strange, Tiny’s loving commitment to her daughter is unwavering. When she discovers that her husband is on an obsessive and increasingly dangerous quest to find a “cure” for their daughter, Tiny must decide whether Chouette should be raised to fit in or to be herself–and learn what it truly means to be a mother.