Pájaros en la boca by Samanta Schweblin (2008)

Spanish Magical Realism Short Stories

"Pájaros en la boca y otros cuentos supone la mejor vía de entrada al fascinante universo de quien, tras su nominación al Man Booker International Prize en 2017 con Distancia de rescate, es una de las voces de las letras hispanas con más proyección en el actual panorama literario internacional. Heredera de la más prestigiosa tradición literaria, en la línea de Raymond Carver y Flannery O'Connor, Schweblin maneja el lenguaje de una forma extraordinaria, con una prosa sobria y eficaz al servicio de historias que se mueven en el límite entre lo real y lo fantástico. Los cuentos de Schweblin, perturbadores y desconcertantes, plantean un enigma que provoca y atrapa profundamente al lector." --Back cover.

1Q84 by 村上春樹 (2009)

Magical Realism Dystopian

The novel is a sub-melodramatic sentimental metafictional love story in a ficticious world with two moons in the sky, a thriller packed with cults, assassinations and grotesque sex (newyorkobserver). The title is a play on the Japanese pronunciation of the year 1984 of George Orwell. The novel was longlisted for the 2011 Man Asian Literary Prize and placed No. 2 in Amazon.com's top books of the year.

La isla bajo el mar by Isabel Allende (2009)

Historical Fiction Spanish Friendship Magical Realism

Born a slave on the island of Saint-Domingue, Zarité -- known as Tété -- is the daughter of an African mother she never knew and one of the white sailors who brought her into bondage. Though her childhood is one of brutality and fear, Tété finds solace in the traditional rhythms of African drums and in the voodoo loas she discovers through her fellow slaves. When twenty-year-old Toulouse Valmorain arrives on the island in 1770, it’s with powdered wigs in his baggage and dreams of financial success in his mind. But running his father’s plantation, Saint-Lazare, is neither glamorous nor easy. It will be eight years before he brings home a bride -- but marriage, too, proves more difficult than he imagined. And Valmorain remains dependent on the services of his teenaged slave. Spanning four decades, Island Beneath the Sea is the moving story of the intertwined lives of Tété and Valmorain, and of one woman’s determination to find love amid loss, to offer humanity though her own has been battered, and to forge her own identity in the cruellest of circumstances. Translated from the Spanish by Margaret Sayers Peden.

The Amalfi Curse by Sarah Penner (2025)

Historical Fiction English Romance Mystery Magical Realism Fantasy

Haven Ambrose, a trailblazing nautical archaeologist, has come to the sun-soaked village of Positano to investigate the mysterious shipwrecks along the Amalfi Coast. But Haven is hoping to find more than old artifacts beneath the azure waters; she is secretly on a quest to locate a trove of priceless gemstones her late father spotted on his final dive. Upon Haven’s arrival, strange maelstroms and misfortunes start plaguing the town. Is it nature or something more sinister at work? As Haven searches for her father’s sunken treasure, she begins to unearth a centuries-old tale of ancient sorcery and one woman’s quest to save her lover and her village by using the legendary art of stregheria, a magical ability to harness the ocean. Could this magic be behind Positano’s latest calamities? Haven must unravel the Amalfi Curse before the region is destroyed forever…

Disco Witches of Fire Island by Blair Fell (2025)

Historical Fiction English Romance Magical Realism Fantasy

It’s 1989, and Joe Agabian and his best friend Ronnie set out to spend their first summer working in the hedonistic gay paradise of Fire Island Pines. Joe is desperate to let loose and finally move beyond the heartbreak of having lost his boyfriend to the HIV/AIDS epidemic. The two friends are quickly taken in by a pair of quirky, older house cleaners. But something seems off, and Joe starts to suspect the two older men of being up to something otherworldly. In truth, Howie and Lenny are members of a secret disco witch coven tasked with protecting the island—and young men like Joe—from the relentless tragedies ravaging their community. The only problem is, having lost too many of their fellow witches to the epidemic, the coven’s protective powers have been seriously damaged. Unaware of all the mystical shenanigans going on, Joe starts to fall for the super-cute bisexual ferryman who just happens to have webbed feet and an unusual ability to hold his breath underwater. But Joe’s longing to find love is tripped up by his own troublesome past as well as the lure of a mysterious hunk he keeps seeing around the island—a man Howie and Lenny warn may be a harbinger of impending doom. The Disco Witches need to find help—fast—if they’re to save Joe and the island from the Great Darkness. But how?

女が死ぬ by 松田青子 (2025)

Literary Fiction English Contemporary Horror Magical Realism Short Stories

「女らしさ」が、全部だるい。天使、小悪魔、お人形……「あなたの好きな少女」を演じる暇はない。好きに太って、痩せて、がははと笑い、グロテスクな自分も祝福する。一話読むたび心の曇りが磨かれる、シャーリイ・ジャクスン賞候補作「女が死ぬ」含む五十三の掌篇集。『ワイルドフラワーの見えない一年』より改題。〈特別付録〉著者ひと言解説（「あなたの好きな少女が嫌い」より）

Hazelthorn by C. G. Drews (2025)

Mystery Horror Magical Realism Fantasy Gothic Young Adult

Evander has lived like a ghost in the forgotten corners of the Hazelthorn estate ever since he was taken in by his reclusive billionaire guardian, Byron Lennox-Hall, when he was a child. For his safety, Evander has been given three ironclad rules to follow: He can never leave the estate. He can never go into the gardens. And most importantly, he can never again be left alone with Byron's charming, underachieving grandson, Laurie. That last rule has been in place ever since Laurie tried to kill Evander seven years ago, and yet somehow Evander is still obsessed with him. But when Byron suddenly dies, Evander inherits Hazelthorn’s immense gothic mansion and acres of sprawling grounds, along with the entirety of the Lennox-Hall family's vast wealth. There’s just one caveat: He must choose a new guardian from amongst Laurie's scheming, backstabbing relatives to help manage the estate until he turns eighteen. Except Evander's sure his guardian was murdered, and Laurie may be the only one who can help him find the killer before they come for Evander next. Perhaps even more concerning is how the overgrown garden is refusing to stay behind its walls, slipping its vines and spores deeper into the house with each passing day. As the family’s dark secrets unravel alongside the growing horror of their terribly alive, bloodthirsty garden, Evander needs to find out what he’s really inheriting before the garden demands to be fed once more.

Han cantado bingo by Lana Corujo (2025)

Literary Fiction Contemporary Spanish Drama Magical Realism

Todo empieza con un algunas noches, en los diez minutos suspendidos antes de que Abuela regrese del bingo, dos hermanas salen a escondidas por la puerta de atrás hasta El Ahorcado —un volcán redondo como una panza bocarriba—, cuentan hasta tres y corren de vuelta sin mirar atrás. Sin embargo, una noche algo cambia… porque una vez traspasado el terreno de una infancia violenta, ¿cómo se mira el mundo? En un cartón de bingo aparecen quince números —los mismos que las edades de la protagonista a lo largo de la novela, presentes como una mosca o una mariposa revoloteando sobre el título de cada capítulo—, y en esos diez minutos suspendidos que dura una partida, todo es posible. Han cantado bingo presenta una familia con un don que se hereda y se sufre, y una historia agreste como el rofe grueso de Lanzarote. Con un lenguaje juguetón y cautivador, cruel y bellísimo, Lana Corujo nos acerca a los silencios y la culpa, las verbenas, las heridas y la magia oscura que solo se teje entre dos hermanas que comparten un secreto.

Persephone's Curse by Katrina Leno (2025)

English Romance Magical Realism Fantasy Paranormal Young Adult

Are the four Farthing sisters really descended from Persephone? This is what their aunt has always told that the women in their family can trace their lineage right back to the Goddess of the Dead. And maybe she's right, because the Farthing girls do have a ghost in the attic of their Manhattan brownstone —a kind and gentle ghost named Henry, who only they can see. When one of the sisters falls in love with the ghost, and another banishes him to the Underworld, the sisters are faced with even bigger questions about who they are. If they really are related to Persephone, and they really are a bit magic, then perhaps it’s up to them to save Henry, to save the world, and to save each other.

Cursed Daughters by Oyinkan Braithwaite (2025)

Literary Fiction English Mystery Contemporary Horror Magical Realism

When Ebun gives birth to her daughter, Eniiyi, on the day they bury her cousin Monife, there is no denying the startling resemblance between the child and the dead woman. So begins the belief, fostered and fanned by the entire family, that Eniiyi is the actual reincarnation of Monife, fated to follow in her footsteps in all ways, including that tragic end. There is also the matter of the family curse: “No man will call your house his home. And if they try, they will not have peace...” which has been handed down from generation to generation, breaking hearts and causing three generations of abandoned Falodun women to live under the same roof. When Eniiyi falls in love with the handsome boy she saves from drowning, she can no longer run from her family’s history. As several women in her family have done before, she ill-advisedly seeks answers in older, darker spiritual corners of Lagos, demanding solutions. Is she destined to live out the habitual story of love and heartbreak? Or can she break the pattern once and for all, not only avoiding the spiral that led Monife to her lonely death, but liberating herself from all the family secrets and unspoken traumas that have dogged her steps since before she could remember?

Flip! by Ngozi Ukazu (2025)

English Contemporary Science Fiction Friendship Humor Magical Realism

SENIOR YEAR BUCKET LIST? SWITCH BODIES WITH YOUR CRUSH. Chi-Chi Ekeh has one huge problem: She keeps having crushes on rich white boys who have no idea she exists. Enter Flip Henderson, the most popular boy at school, who receives Chi-Chi’s private video proposal to go to senior prom. But when Flip rejects Chi-Chi in front of their entire class, what happens next is completely unexpected: Chi-Chi―shy nerd and scholarship student―switches bodies with Flip. Suddenly Chi-Chi is 6’1” and cool, while Flip gets a crash course on Chi-Chi’s life―that is, k-pop, hair-braiding, and being a poor kid of color at a rich white private school. With graduation looming and their body swaps lasting longer and longer, Chi-Chi and Flip must form the most unlikely friendship their school has ever seen. But will they survive senior year? And, most importantly, can they find a way back to themselves?

Junie by Erin Crosby Eckstine (2025)

Historical Fiction English Horror Magical Realism Fantasy Coming of Age

Sixteen years old and enslaved since she was born, Junie has spent her life on Bellereine Plantation in Alabama, cooking and cleaning alongside her family, and tending to the white master’s daughter, Violet. Her daydreams are filled with poetry and faraway worlds, while she spends her nights secretly roaming through the forest, consumed with grief over the sudden death of her older sister, Minnie. When wealthy guests arrive from New Orleans, hinting at marriage for Violet and upending Junie’s life, she commits a desperate act—one that rouses Minnie’s spirit from the grave, tethered to this world unless Junie can free her. She enlists the aid of Caleb, the guests’ coachman, and their friendship soon becomes something more. Yet as long-held truths begin to crumble, she realizes Bellereine is harboring dark and horrifying secrets that can no longer be ignored. With time ticking down, Junie begins to push against the harsh current that has controlled her entire life. As she grapples with an increasingly unfamiliar world in which she has little control, she is forced to ask herself: When we choose love and liberation, what must we leave behind?

Life, and Death, and Giants by Ron Rindo (2025)

Literary Fiction English Contemporary Magical Realism Family Drama

Gabriel Fisher was born an orphan, weighing eighteen pounds and measuring twenty-seven inches long. No one in Lakota, Wisconsin, knows what to make of him. He walks at eight months, communicates with animals, and seems to possess extraordinary athletic talent. But when the older brother who has been caring for him dies, Gabriel is taken in by his devout Amish grandparents who disapprove of all the attention and hide him away from the English world. But it’s hard to hide forever when you’re nearly eight feet tall. At seventeen, Gabriel is spotted working in a hay field by the local football coach. What happens next transforms not only Gabriel’s life but the lives of everyone he meets.

Wild Life by Amanda Leduc (2025)

Historical Fiction English Magical Realism Fantasy

**Amanda Leduc’s dazzling new novel follows two walking, talking hyenas as they interact with humans over decades. Blurring the line between human and animal, these strange messengers reveal what is possible when the cages that contain us are broken.** In 19th-century Scotland, young Josiah is banished by his father for seeing the divine in the animals around him and sent to Siberia with a small Christian mission to purge such nonsense from his soul. Miserably scrubbing the chapel floor one night, Josiah is visited by what he thinks is God in animal form. When his saviours, a hyena and her mate, rescue him from a natural disaster that kills the other missionaries and then bring him safely home, he founds a religion based on his belief that God granted speech to the hyenas as part of a divine plan to heal and exalt the human race. The hyena pair, Barbara and Kendrith, aren't so sure that Josiah has it right. But with their beautiful strangeness, they utterly transform the people they encounter over succeeding generations. As Josiah's church gathers adherents, more and more animals start to speak to humans—from signing baby gorillas to seductive alligators. At first one or two rebellious pets make a break for freedom, but then comes a mass exodus of all animals held captive, forcing people to contend with a wildness in themselves they have spent millennia denying. The end of this remarkable fairytale is both joyful and devastating, completely dissolving the boundary between what's "human" and what's "animal." (Source: [Penguin Random House Canada](https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/551900/wild-life-by-amanda-leduc/9780735272873))