Magical realism

Book SynopsisIn a bravura feat of storytelling, Mark Haddon calls upon narratives ancient and modern to tell the story of Angelica, a young woman trapped in an abusive relationship with her father. When a young man named Darius discovers their secret, he is forced to escape on a boat bound for the Mediterranean. To his surprise he finds himself travelling backwards over two thousand years to a world of pirates and shipwrecks, of plagues and miracles and angry gods. Moving seamlessly between the past and the present, Haddon conjures the worlds of Angelica and her would-be savior in thrilling fashion. As profound as it is entertaining, The Porpoise is a stirring and endlessly inventive novel from one of our finest storytellers.

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Book SynopsisNEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “It’s Lovecraft meets the Brontës in Latin America, and after a slow-burn start Mexican Gothic gets seriously weird.”—The Guardian IN DEVELOPMENT AS A HULU ORIGINAL LIMITED SERIES PRODUCED BY KELLY RIPA AND MARK CONSUELOS • WINNER OF THE LOCUS AWARD • NOMINATED FOR THE BRAM STOKER AWARD ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, NPR, The Washington Post, Tordotcom, Marie Claire, Vox, Mashable, Men’s Health, Library Journal, Book Riot, LibraryReads An isolated mansion. A chillingly charismatic aristocrat. And a brave socialite drawn to expose their treacherous secrets. . . . From the author of Gods of Jade and Shadow comes “a terrifying twist on classic gothic horror” (Kirkus Reviews) set in glamorous 1950s Mexico.

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Book Synopsis“Hace dos días que andamos sobre el armazón del planeta, olvidados de la Historia y hasta de las oscuras migraciones de las eras sin crónicas. […] Lo que se abre ante nuestros ojos es el mundo anterior al hombre.”Huyendo de una existencia vacía y rutinaria en la ciudad de Nueva York, un compositor viaja con su amante hasta un poblado perdido en las profundidades de una selva en Sudamérica en busca de instrumentos primitivos. El protagonista remonta el río Orinoco hasta sus orígenes y va descubriendo los estratos temporales de la humanidad, mediante una regresión en el tiempo en la que al mismo tiempo irá descubriéndose a sí mismo. Allí tendrá que decidir si quiere permanecer en un mundo primitivo, carente de bienes materiales pero donde ha encontrado la felicidad, o retornar a la civilización.Los pasos perdidos es una profunda reflexi&oacute

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Book SynopsisOne of The New York Times best Fantasy novels of 2022!An utterly delightful epistolary romance....The Impossible Us is that rare 'I laughed, I cried' book.—The New York TimesNick: Failed writer. Failed husband. Dog owner.Bee: Serial dater. Dress maker. Pringles enthusiast. One day, their paths cross over a misdirected email. The connection is instant, electric. They feel like they’ve known each other all their lives. So they decide to meet.While Nick buys a new suit, and gets his courage up, Bee steps away from her desk, and sets off to meet him at a London train station. With their happily-ever-after nearly in hand, what happens next is incredible and threatens to separate them forever. As their once in a lifetime connection is tested, Nick and Bee will discover whether being together is an impossible chance worth taking.

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Book SynopsisThis enchanting tale of a cursed mythical creature and the lonely fisherman who falls in love with her is a daring, mesmerizing novel…single-handedly bringing magic realism up-to-date (Maggie O’Farrell, best-selling author of Hamnet).Sentence by sensuous sentence, Roffey builds a verdant, complicated world that is a pleasure to live inside.... You might start to believe in the existence of mermaids.” —The New York TimesIn 1976, David is fishing off the island of Black Conch when he comes upon a creature he doesn’t expect: a mermaid by the name of Aycayia. Once a beautiful young woman, she was cursed by jealous wives to live in this form for the rest of her days. But after the mermaid is caught by American tourists, David rescues and hides her away in his home, finding that, once out of the water, she begins to transform back into a woman.Now David must work to win Aycayia's trust while she relearns what it is to be human, navigating not only her new body but also her relationship with others on the island—a difficult task after centuries of loneliness. As David and Aycayia grow to love each other, they juggle both the joys and the dangers of life on shore. But a lingering question remains: Will the former mermaid be able to escape her curse? Taking on many points of view, this mythical adventure tells the story of one woman’s return to land, her healing, and her survival.

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Book SynopsisOne marriage. So many secrets. Can a camera that captures those secrets, exposing them through pictures, save the marriage or send it crashing into the sea?Kelly Whitely is at the height of her career, selling the latest miracle drug to doctors and pharmacies across the country. But concerns about the side effects have her longing for the day when she can quit her high-paying job and really focus on saving her marriage and teenage daughter. She keeps trying to talk to her husband, Daniel, about it, but every time she brings it up, he retreats further and further away from her.Daniel Whitely is a successful marriage counselor and bestselling author, yet secrets from the past have created a chasm between him and Kelly. To make matters worse, the deadline for his second book has come and gone, and he still hasn’t written a single word. But he doesn’t dare tell anyone, not even his wife.When Daniel inherits an old camera from his gr

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Book SynopsisWith a preface by the irrepressible Patti Smith, The Divorce is a delightful book of several short amazing stories of chance meetings, bizarre circumstances, and even stranger visions of alternate realities written as only César Aira canTrade Review"[A] fleeting glance at the deeply strange multitudes living in Aira’s mind palace...marked by not only his characteristically expressive language, but also his willingness to go just about anywhere with a narrative." -- Kirkus"This prismatic, exquisitely rendered work is from a master at the height of his powers." -- Publishers Weekly (starred review)"Sui generis is really the only way to accurately describe César Aira. He’s by turns a realist, a magical realist and a surrealist — and therefore not really any of them. Anything can happen in an Aira novel, and almost everything does." -- Tyler Malone - Los Angeles Times"We come full circle, to the 'delicate machine' that put everything in motion. In someone else’s hands, this might feel like a trick, but in Aira’s it is magical." -- Sheila Glaser - New York Times Book Review"The Divorce is a masterful demonstration of focused imagination. Aira chronicles overlapping coincidences, layering memory with temporality and injecting magic into the mundane to create a kaleidoscopic tale of serendipitous meetings that rumbles like an avalanche down a mountain, gathering speed and power as the novel progresses. With lightness and verve, Aira twirls the macro with the micro to create a singular novel whose story turns and turns again until it comes full circle, like “that ‘little steel fairy,’ the bicycle, from whose spinning stories are born." -- Alex Crayon - World Literature Today

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Book SynopsisFull of nature and wonder, love and adventure, Beasts of Extraordinary Circumstance is a beautifully written novel that bristles with charm and curiosity (Winston Groom, New York Times bestselling author of Forrest Gump). Born in a blizzard, orphaned, and believed to be raised by wolves, Weylyn Grey is someone who inspires endless curiosity in everyone he's ever met. People say that once Weylyn wanders into your world, you'll wish he'd never leave. But what makes him different? How does he possess the ability to transform others' lives? How does he manage to findand createmagic in the ordinary? This is the story of Weylyn's journey, told from the perspective of those who knew him, loved him, or were bewildered by him along the way. In this stunning and deeply imaginative debut, author Ruth Emmie Lang introduces us to a character who will live in readers' hearts long after the last page is turned.

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Book SynopsisBold, iridescent . . . Dazzling and shocking . . . Ross's lyrical, rhythmic writing is something to be savored . . . [Her] voice sings out loud and pure. Eowyn Ivey, The New York Times Book ReviewAn uproarious, sensual novel, Leone Ross's Popisho conjures a world where magic is everywhere, food is fate, politics are broken, and love awaits.Everyone in Popisho was born with a little something-something, boy, a little something extra. The local name was cors. Magic, but more than magic. A gift, nah? Yes. From the gods: a thing so inexpressibly your own. Somewhere far awayor maybe right nearbylies an archipelago called Popisho. A place of stunning beauty and incorrigible mischief, destiny and mystery, it is also a place in need of change. Xavier Redchoose is the macaenus of his generation, anointed by the gods to make each resident one perfect meal when the time is right. Anise, his long-lost love, is on a

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Book SynopsisAn ingenious pocket universe. Caitlin Horrocks, The New York Times Book Review Gunnhild Øyehaug is a magician of the highest rank. Catherine LaceyOn an ordinary day in Bergen, Norway, in the late 1990s, Anna is reading in the garden while her two-year-old daughter, Laura, plays on her tricycle. Then, in one startling moment, Anna misreads a word, an alternate universe opens up, and Laura disappears. Twenty years or so later, life has gone on as if nothing happened. In each of the women's lives, however, something is not quite right.Both Anna and Laura continue to exist, but they are invisible to each other and forgotten in each other's worlds. Both are writers and amateur pianists. Both are married; Anna had two more children after Laura disappeared, and Laura is expecting a child of her own. They worry about their families, their jobs, the climateand whether this reality is all there is.In the exquisite, wistful, slyly profoun

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Book SynopsisFrom the author of What Remains True comes an emotionally captivating novel about a woman who wishes away her troubles but doesn’t anticipate the cost. I wish… It starts with a simple wish, and Emma Davies hardly notices when it comes true. She’s too preoccupied with a life she isn’t happy in—the spark in her marriage has fizzled, her career is headed nowhere and her boss is a misogynist. Her teenage daughter has grown distant, and her heart breaks daily for her teenage son with cerebral palsy. But soon Emma discovers her wishes are coming true, and she realizes that she has been given the power to change her life. Either that, or she’s going insane. Emma begins testing her newfound gift, making calculated wishes and learning one important rule—once granted, they cannot be undone. Over time, she grows bolder as she builds up to the one wish she both fears and desperately longs to make. But when Emma finally gets everything she’s asked for, will it be worth the price?Trade Review“‘Be careful what you wish for’ has never rang truer than in Janis Thomas’s latest. Shocking, disturbing, and heart-wrenching, All That’s Left of Me is as real as it is magical. Thomas deftly weaves a tale of one woman desperate for a better life that made me laugh, and made me cry. It made me think: What would I wish for? All That’s Left of Me will captivate readers from page one and keep them guessing until the end.” —Kerry Lonsdale, Amazon Charts and Wall Street Journal bestselling author “All That’s Left of Me draws the reader in via the author’s hypnotic prose, and when ‘what-if’ becomes ‘I wish,’ the reader is left stunned and breathless by the consequences. This is a novel about love, regret, heartache, and appreciation for a perfectly imperfect life.” —Grace Greene, bestselling author of The Memory of Butterflies “A compelling and poignant family drama, All That’s Left of Me is the story of a woman who feels trapped by circumstance in what she views as an unhappy life. And then one day, she makes a wish. No one could be more shocked than she when it comes true. And then—she makes several more wishes, until, magically, she has altered the very fabric of her existence beyond recognition. But there is a price that must be paid—and consequences she could never have anticipated. You know what they say…be careful what you wish for. All That’s Left of Me is a cautionary tale, one that will make you think and keep you guessing to the final page.” —Barbara Taylor Sissel, bestselling author of The Truth We Bury

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Book Synopsis“Miquel Reina’s Lights on the Sea is an absolutely lovely, beautiful debut novel with a dreamy, fable-like quality that will appeal to readers. Fans of Life of Pi will love this novel.” —Kristin Hannah, New York Times bestselling author of The Nightingale and The Great Alone On the highest point of an island, in a house clinging to the edge of a cliff, live Mary Rose and Harold Grapes, a retired couple still mourning the death of their son thirty-five years before. Weighed down by decades of grief and memories, the Grapeses have never moved past the tragedy. Then, on the eve of eviction from the most beautiful and dangerously unstable perch in the area, they’re uprooted by a violent storm. The disbelieving Grapeses and their home take a free-fall slide into the white-capped sea and float away. As the past that once moored them recedes and disappears, Mary Rose and Harold are delivered from decades of sorrow by the ebb and flow of the waves. Ahead of them, a light shimmers on the horizon, guiding them toward a revelatory and cathartic new engagement with life, and all its wonder. Wildly imaginative, deeply poignant, and entirely unexpected, Lights on the Sea sweeps readers away on a journey of fate, acceptance, redemption, and survival against the most rewarding of odds.Trade Review“This beautiful, unusual tale explores the healing power of love and the magic that exists in our everyday lives, even when we don’t know how to find it.” —Jill Santopolo, New York Times bestselling author of The Light We Lost “Miquel Reina’s Lights on the Sea is an absolutely lovely, beautiful debut novel with a dreamy, fable-like quality that will appeal to readers. Fans of Life of Pi will love this novel.” —Kristin Hannah, New York Times bestselling author of The Nightingale and The Great Alone

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Book SynopsisWhat if you woke up one day and the loved one you’d lost was suddenly, inexplicably alive again? Chloe Howard’s devotion to her job has come at a cost: spending time with the most important person in her life—her mother. Vowing to change, she plans a trip home. Sadly, hours before she arrives, her mother passes away, leaving Chloe without a goodbye and riddled with grief and regret. But maybe…maybe it’s not too late. Just days before the funeral, Chloe finds her mother unaccountably alive and well. And it’s no longer May; she’s been transported back in time to March. No one—not Chloe’s brother, friends, or colleagues—understands why Chloe is so confused. How can she make sense of this? It’s impossible. But Chloe is going to make the most of it. She’s going to do everything differently: repair family rifts, forge new bonds, tell her mother every day how much she loves her, and possibly prevent the inevitable. This is a second chance Chloe never saw coming. She’s not wasting a minute of it.Trade Review“This is a heart-wrenching novel about family and love, with a wide range of well-developed characters. Readers who enjoy novels by Jessica Strawser or Barbara O’Neal will need a box of tissues for this one.” —Booklist (starred review) “Sarah Echavarre’s debut women’s fiction is a moving story about second chances and the precious time we have with loved ones. This was a page-turner, immersive, and all-consuming, and the perfect book to pick up this holiday season. Three More Months is a must-read.” —Tif Marcelo, USA Today bestselling author of In a Book Club Far Away

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Book SynopsisIn this bewitching debut novel, a sensitive teen, newly arrived in Alabama, falls in love, questions his faith, and navigates a strange power. While his German parents don’t know what to make of a South pining for the past, shy Max thrives in the thick heat. Taken in by the football team, he learns how to catch a spiraling ball, how to point a gun, and how to hide his innermost secrets. Max already expects some of the raucous behavior of his new, American friends—like their insatiable hunger for the fried and cheesy, and their locker room talk about girls. But he doesn’t expect the comradery—or how quickly he would be welcomed into their world of basement beer drinking. In his new canvas pants and thickening muscles, Max feels like he’s “playing dress-up.” That is until he meets Pan, the school “witch,” in Physics class: “Pan in his all black. Pan with his goth choker and the gel that made his hair go straight up.” Suddenly, Max feels seen, and the pair embarks on a consuming relationship: Max tells Pan about his supernatural powers, and Pan tells Max about the snake poison initiations of the local church. The boys, however, aren’t sure whose past is darker, and what is more frightening—their true selves, or staying true in Alabama. Writing in verdant and visceral prose that builds to a shocking conclusion, Genevieve Hudson “brilliantly reinvents the Southern Gothic, mapping queer love in a land where God, guns, and football are king” (Leni Zumas, author of Red Clocks). Boys of Alabama becomes a nuanced portrait of masculinity, religion, immigration, and the adolescent pressures that require total conformity.Trade Review"Hudson’s writing is magnetic. It’s like the Kristen Stewart of prose – chameleon-like, layered, funny and serious and sad, really gay, and so attractive.... It wrecked me, just like I wanted.... Hudson grew up in Alabama, and their complex relationship with the place shines through in this story, which quietly and then loudly hurtles toward a climax that had me staring into space for a full 10 minutes after I read it." -- Sarah Neilson, Them, "5 Queer Books We Loved in 2020""Debut novelist Hudson sets her unique coming-of-age tale in a hot, swampy Alabama steeped in football and God. . . . This is a little southern gothic, a little supernatural, and a little reminiscent of Wiley Cash’s suspenseful A Land More Kind than Home (2012)." -- Kathy Sexton, Booklist"Boys of Alabama brilliantly reinvents the Southern Gothic... An absolutely magical novel." -- Leni Zumas, author of Red Clocks"A gripping, uncanny, and queer exploration of being a boy in America, told with detail that dazzles and disturbs." -- Michelle Tea, author of Against Memoir"Genevieve Hudson dismantles and spins a new category of fairy tale for us, one that’s equal parts dirt and splendor. A glinting, dark beauty. An incantation." -- T Kira Madden, author of Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girl"This novel is a love song to outsiders of all kinds, a queer love story about the ways we find to heal ourselves and each other, and proof that there can be magic amid the burdens of masculinity." -- Melissa Febos, author of Whip Smart and Abandon Me"Genevieve Hudson has conjured a novel that sets place as a touchstone. Every field is alive: every leaf, every insect, every crawling thing. Hands beget love, words set like sweetness on the tongue. The magic contained in Boys of Alabama's pages isn't just fixed in the beauty of its sentences; it's seen in the way that Hudson carefully crafts the intimacy between people and how she tenderly exposes queerness. This book is a fragile web, full of longing and ache and regret." -- Kristen Arnett, author of Mostly Dead Things"Genevieve Hudson creates a new American erotics of longing and belonging, flush with want and desire, hope and home, translation and transformation." -- Matt Bell, author of Scrapper"Hudson goes right to a place where violence comes from—uncomfortably close to desire for magic, God, sex, whatever might actually heal us—and doesn’t turn away." -- Kristin Dombek, author of The Selfishness of Others"One of the finest—and weirdest!—first novels I’ve read in quite some long time." -- Tom Bissell, author of Apostle and coauthor of The Disaster Artist"Boys of Alabama perfectly captures the magic and inevitable heartache of young lust." -- Kimberly King Parsons, author of Black Light"[Depicts] a brand of Southern-fried masculinity that is immediately recognizable and startlingly fresh. This is an exquisite book." -- Nick White, author of How to Survive a Summer"Reminds us that behind so many of America’s most rigid beliefs lies the lonely human heart: twitchy, slippery, alive." -- Mikkel Rosengaard, author of The Invention of Ana

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Book SynopsisThe Guardian: Best Children's and YA Book of the Year  An environmental fairytale that speaks eloquently to the most pressing issues of our times, from the Booker Prize–winning author of The Famished Road.Mangoshi lives with her mom and dad in a village near the forest. When her mom becomes ill, Mangoshi knows only one thing can help her—a special flower that grows deep in the forest.   The little girl needs all her courage when she sets out alone to find and bring back the flower, and all her kindness to overpower the dangers she encounters on the quest.   Ben Okri brings the power of his mystic vision to a timely story that weaves together wonder, adventure, and environmentalism.

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Book SynopsisFiruzeh and her brother Nour are children of fire, born in an Afghanistan fractured by war. When their parents, their Atay and Abay, decide to leave, they spin fairy tales of their destination, the mythical land and opportunities of Australia. As the family journeys from Pakistan to Indonesia to Nauru, heading toward a hope of home, they must rely on fragile and temporary shelters, strangers both mercenary and kind, and friends who vanish as quickly as they’re found. When they arrive in Australia, what seemed like a stable shore gives way to treacherous currents. Neighbours, classmates, and the government seek their own ends, indifferent to the family’s fate. For Firuzeh, her fantasy worlds provide some relief, but as her family and home splinter, she must surface from these imaginings and find a new way.Trade Review★ “In flowing, lyrical prose, Yu showcases the power of folklore and the pain of displacement. This is a knockout.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review ★ “On Fragile Waves is a lyrical fabulist novel that will enchant readers of both literary fiction and fantasy.” —Booklist, starred review★ “An evocative and heart-lacerating debut novel. . . . Essential fiction to understand our world.” —Library Journal, starred review ★ “On Fragile Waves is a masterful and poetic novel about finding hope and joy in the most dire circumstances.” —Foreword Reviews, starred review“This is Yu’s first novel, but you’d never know it from the surety of her approach, the immensity of what she achieves. On Fragile Waves is a tremendous and almost unbearable work of witness. It is devastating and perfect.” —Amal El-Mohtar in the New York Times Book Review“One of the most devastatingly beautiful books I read all year.”—NPR, “Best Books of 2021” “Beautifully written, absorbing, powerful. . . . This should win awards when it comes out next year. I think Yu is doing some of the most exciting things in genre.” —Tor.com“Powerfully affecting.” —Ted Chiang, author of Exhalation “An extraordinary achievement—original in voice, powerful in material, a book of brutal beauty and unflinching compassion. May it be noticed and read and praised and believed.” —Karen Joy Fowler, author of We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves“A heartbreaking celebration of the necessity of joy. A soul-searing tale of homecoming, home-becoming, home-conjuring. By holding up the jagged beauty of faith against despair, E. Lily Yu is the brilliant voice of conscience our age needs.” —Ken Liu, author of The Paper Menagerie “An incredibly accomplished debut novel, a necessary and important tale of empathy and imagination and hope.” —Matt Bell, author of Appleseed“E. Lily Yu's finely honed prose and her child narrator allow for flashes of warmth and beauty between the shocks and sorrows, the terrors and humiliations.” —Margo Lanagan, author of Tender Morsels“Vivid, intense and heart-wrenching. On Fragile Waves is both a coming-of-age tale and an unflinching meditation on exile, belonging, fragility and hope.” —Victoria Law, co-author of Prison By Any Other Name“On Fragile Waves confirms that E. Lily Yu is a prodigy. Every line a gemstone, every page a calligram.” — Usman T. Malik, author of Midnight Doorways: Fables from Pakistan“A stunning heartbreaker. The prose is as sharp and beautiful as the story it tells . . . bringing into painful beautiful focus all the ways the world is horrible, and all the ways the world is magic.” —Sam J. Miller, author of Blackfish City

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Book SynopsisNPR Books We Love 2021 Publishers Weekly Best Books of 2021 Booklist Best of 2021 Booklist Editors' Choice: Adult Titles NYT Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Books of 2021 Washington Independent Review of Books 51 Favorite Books of 2021“On Fragile Waves is a tremendous and almost unbearable work of witness. It is devastating and perfect.” — New York Times Book ReviewThe haunting story of a family of dreamers and tale-tellers looking for home in an unwelcoming world. This exquisite and unusual magic realist debut, told in intensely lyrical prose by an award winning author, traces one girl’s migration from war to peace, loss to loss, home to home.Firuzeh and her brother Nour are children of fire, born in an Afghanistan fractured by war. When their parents, their Atay and Abay, decide to leave, they spin fairy tales of their destination, the mythical land and opportunities of Australia.As the family journeys from Pakistan to Indonesia to Nauru, heading toward a hope of home, they must rely on fragile and temporary shelters, strangers both mercenary and kind, and friends who vanish as quickly as they’re found.When they arrive in Australia, what seemed like a stable shore gives way to treacherous currents. Neighbors, classmates, and the government seek their own ends, indifferent to the family’s fate. For Firuzeh, her fantasy worlds provide some relief, but as her family and home splinter, she must surface from these imaginings and find a new way.Trade Review★ “In flowing, lyrical prose, Yu showcases the power of folklore and the pain of displacement. This is a knockout.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review ★ “On Fragile Waves is a lyrical fabulist novel that will enchant readers of both literary fiction and fantasy.” —Booklist, starred review★ “An evocative and heart-lacerating debut novel. . . . Essential fiction to understand our world.” —Library Journal, starred review ★ “On Fragile Waves is a masterful and poetic novel about finding hope and joy in the most dire circumstances.” —Foreword Reviews, starred review“This is Yu’s first novel, but you’d never know it from the surety of her approach, the immensity of what she achieves. On Fragile Waves is a tremendous and almost unbearable work of witness. It is devastating and perfect.” —Amal El-Mohtar in the New York Times Book Review“One of the most devastatingly beautiful books I read all year.”—NPR, “Best Books of 2021” “Beautifully written, absorbing, powerful. . . . This should win awards when it comes out next year. I think Yu is doing some of the most exciting things in genre.” —Tor.com“Powerfully affecting.” —Ted Chiang, author of Exhalation “An extraordinary achievement—original in voice, powerful in material, a book of brutal beauty and unflinching compassion. May it be noticed and read and praised and believed.” —Karen Joy Fowler, author of We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves“A heartbreaking celebration of the necessity of joy. A soul-searing tale of homecoming, home-becoming, home-conjuring. By holding up the jagged beauty of faith against despair, E. Lily Yu is the brilliant voice of conscience our age needs.” —Ken Liu, author of The Paper Menagerie “An incredibly accomplished debut novel, a necessary and important tale of empathy and imagination and hope.” —Matt Bell, author of Appleseed“E. Lily Yu's finely honed prose and her child narrator allow for flashes of warmth and beauty between the shocks and sorrows, the terrors and humiliations.” —Margo Lanagan, author of Tender Morsels“Vivid, intense and heart-wrenching. On Fragile Waves is both a coming-of-age tale and an unflinching meditation on exile, belonging, fragility and hope.” —Victoria Law, co-author of Prison By Any Other Name“On Fragile Waves confirms that E. Lily Yu is a prodigy. Every line a gemstone, every page a calligram.” — Usman T. Malik, author of Midnight Doorways: Fables from Pakistan“A stunning heartbreaker. The prose is as sharp and beautiful as the story it tells . . . bringing into painful beautiful focus all the ways the world is horrible, and all the ways the world is magic.” —Sam J. Miller, author of Blackfish City

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Book Synopsis“Ghost story, family saga, parable, feminist reimagined myth: Angela Mi Young Hur’s hugely ambitious Folklorn is a spellbinding shape-shifter of a novel that tackles questions of race, culture, and history head-on, exploring the blurry boundaries between past and present, fact and fantasy, and personal and cultural—or cosmic.” —Celeste Ng, author of Little Fires EverywhereA New York Times Best Sci-Fi and Fantasy Novel of 2021 An NPR Best Book of 2021 Indie Next Pick May 2021A genre-defying, continents-spanning saga of Korean myth, scientific discovery, and the abiding love that binds even the most broken of families.Elsa Park is a particle physicist at the top of her game, stationed at a neutrino observatory in the Antarctic, confident she’s put enough distance between her ambitions and the family ghosts she’s run from all her life. But it isn’t long before her childhood imaginary friend—an achingly familiar, spectral woman in the snow—comes to claim her at last.Years ago, Elsa’s now-catatonic mother warned her that women of their line were doomed to repeat the narrative lives of their ancestors from Korean myth and legend. But Elsa also faces a more earthly fate: the mental illness and generational trauma that run in her immigrant family.When her mother breaks her decade-long silence and tragedy strikes, Elsa must return to her childhood home in California. There, among family wrestling with their own demons, she unravels the secrets hidden in the handwritten pages of her mother’s dark stories: of women’s desire and fury; of magic suppressed, stolen, or punished; of the hunger for vengeance.Folklorn is a wondrous and necessary exploration of the myths we inherit and those we fashion for ourselves.Trade Review“An elegant punch to the face . . . beautiful and hard and hungry, full of sharp, painful observations, slicing clichés open like prickly pears and devouring their hearts.” —Amal el-Mohtar in the New York Times Book Review“Folklorn is extremely ambitious in scope, and the writing never fails to deliver. . . . Angela Mi Young Hur engagingly blends Korean folktales with literary traditions for a fresh take on both the universal story of identity and assimilation, and the national tale of han.” —Washington Independent Review of Books“A gorgeous journey into the intersection of science and myth and how our past traumas shape us—but how they need not define us.” —NPR “Best Books of 2021”“Haunting and spiritual and touching, and so unique. This is absolutely one to be cherished.” —Tor.com, “30 Most Anticipated Books of 2021”“A complex meditation on intergenerational trauma. . . . This thought-provoking work will appeal to SFF fans who like their talk of particle physics side by side with fox spirits and fairy tales.” —Publishers Weekly“Genre-defying and emotionally unsettling, it is a book that refuses to stay in whatever category the reader wants to put it. . . . Well worth the effort.” —Locus“Angela Mi Young Hur’s hugely ambitious Folklorn is a spellbinding shape-shifter of a novel that tackles questions of race, culture, and history head-on, exploring the blurry boundaries between past and present, fact and fantasy, and personal and cultural—or cosmic.” —Celeste Ng, author of Little Fires Everywhere“Vivid and delectable. Angela Mi Young Hur is equally at home working in the fertile territories of myth and the fantastic as in the nuanced portrayal of a contemporary, complex family. I loved this.” – Kelly Link, author of Get in Trouble“Dark, difficult, and riveting—Folklorn gave me endless trouble, and I appreciate it.” —R. F. Kuang, author of The Poppy War“In Folklorn, Angela Mi Young Hur weaves the fantastic into the realism of a compelling family saga, creating a heartfelt novel as original as it is irresistible.” —Mat Johnson, author Loving Day“Hur writes with virtuosity and power, weaving together the ribbons of the mythic with the complex tapestry of family and history to create a gorgeous, moving whole.” —Kat Howard, author of An Unkindness of Magicians“Folklorn is a work of capacious, original imagination: part supernatural mystery, part immigrant family story. Hur’s mixing and melding of genres is an inventive, elegant means of illuminating the dualities of diasporic experience, as well as a testament to the essential role of stories in understanding our identities.” —Peter Ho Davies, author of The Welsh Girl“This novel is brash, defiant and ultimately full of yearning." —Chia-Chia Lin, author of The Unpassing

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Book Synopsis “River Mumma is a love letter to culture, home, and coming of age—and will spark important, relevant book club conversations, too.” —Marissa Stapley, New York Times bestselling author of Lucky Issa Rae’s Insecure with a magical realist spin: River Mumma is an exhilarating contemporary fantasy novel about a young Black woman who navigates her quarter-life-crisis while embarking on a mythical quest through the streets of Toronto.Alicia has been out of grad school for months. She has no career prospects and lives with her mom, who won’t stop texting her macabre news stories and reminders to pick up items from the grocery store.Then, one evening, the Jamaican water deity, River Mumma, appears to Alicia, telling her that she has twenty-four hours to scour the city for her missing comb.Alicia doesn’t understand why River Mumma would choose her. She can’t remember all the legends her relatives told her, unlike her retail co-worker Heaven, who can reel off Jamaican folklore by heart. She doesn’t know if her childhood visions have returned, or why she feels a strange connection to her other co-worker Mars. But when the trio are chased down by malevolent spirits called duppies, they realize their tenuous bonds to each other may be their only lifelines. With the clock ticking, Alicia’s quest through the city broadens into a journey through time—to find herself and what the river carries.Energetic and invigorating, River Mumma is a vibrant exploration of diasporic community and ancestral ties, and a homage to Jamaican storytelling by one of the most invigorating voices in today’s literature.“This quirky, fizzy, charming debut surprises and amuses. Reid-Benta writes beautifully, drawing on Caribbean mythologies to create a fast paced and entertaining tale. It's rare to find a novel written with such humour and heart.” —T. L. Huchu, USA Today Bestselling author of The Library of the DeadTrade Review★ “Stunning debut. . . that marks the emergence of a powerful new voice.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review★ “A race-against-the-clock page-turner with friendship and diasporic community building at its heart, this book is a winner.” —Booklist, starred review“This is a splendid story about ancestry, identity, and creativity.” —Apple Books Review“River Mumma is a propulsive read filled with captivating characters, page-­turning mystery, and a thoughtful examination of kinship and ancestral ties.” —Toronto Life“. . . Reid-Benta writes powerfully of the diasporic experience, the connections between family history and community, and the role and importance of lore and mythic history.” —Toronto Star “River Mumma is a blessing and Zalika Reid-Benta’s talent is a truly special gift. This is a quest novel that maps Jamaican folklore across modern-day Toronto; three young people are sent on a mission by a goddess and if that doesn’t pique your interest then something is very wrong with you.” —Victor LaValle, award-winning author of The Changeling“Wholly original, remarkably crafted, and unmatched in voice, atmosphere, and action, River Mumma should be on every must-read list this season.” —Cherie Dimaline, bestselling author of Empire of Wild“River Mumma is the type of vivid, rich novel I love best. It left me turning pages and pondering possibilities well into the night.” —Alicia Elliott, bestselling author of A Mind Spread Out on the Ground“A generational saga, a big-city survival narrative, a study of diasporic cultural nuances, all wrapped inside a thrilling adventure. Complex, deep and resonant, River Mumma is coming for your heart.” —Samit Basu, author of The City Inside“River Mumma is a love letter to culture, home, and coming of age—and will spark important, relevant book club conversations, too.” —Marissa Stapley, New York Times bestselling author of Lucky"A fast-paced and absorbing adventure steeped in Caribbean folklore and mythology, River Mumma is a treat for the senses." —Uzma Jalaluddin, bestselling author of Ayesha at Last“River Mumma is a necessary book about race, gender, ancestry, colonialism, eco-existentialism, and desire.” —Jenny Heijun Wills, author of Older Sister. Not Necessarily Related“A page-turner of a novel that is both funny and poignant, River Mumma magically and seamlessly weaves Jamaican folklore and myth with the winter landscape of Toronto to create a compelling fictional landscape.” —Shyam Selvadurai, author of Mansions of the Moon“A powerful and evocative novel weaving threads of magical realism to create a powerful and moving tale about a search for identity. It is a journey–diasporic, ancestral, cultural, and personal–all coming together by the importance of storytelling by a master storyteller.” —Maurice Broaddus, award-nominated author of Sweep of Stars

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Book SynopsisFrom Melissa Payne, bestselling author of The Night of Many Endings, comes an emotional and suspenseful novel about the weight of secrets and the healing power of friends and family. Vega Jones escapes an abusive relationship with nothing but her two-month-old baby and the van she grew up in. Her destination is a small Ohio town her late vagabond mother left years ago. It’s one full of nobodies, her mother warned. That makes it the ideal refuge for Vega to lie low, feel safe, and maybe learn more about a past her mother never spoke of. Vega warms to the town and to new acquaintances like Heff, the young deputy and artist who prefers his yard art to actual policing, and empathetic Eve, a local farmer whose near-death experience gave her more than just her life back. But even in this welcoming community, there’s an undercurrent of something unsettled, talk of a tragedy that unfolded in the woods years ago, and a mystery connected to Vega in ways she couldn’t have anticipated. As a mother on the run and following a path of mounting risks and illuminating secrets, Vega discovers that even during the darkest of times, there’s light in unexpected places.Trade Review“The authentic characters and their realistic struggles make this introspective tale entirely believable. Vega’s resilience is sure to endear her to readers.” —Publishers Weekly “A Light in the Forest is a thrilling portrait of women finding their footing when all odds seem stacked against them. ” —BookTrib

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Book Synopsis“Nwoka’s debut feels like a dream, or a fable, or something in between . . . Recommended for fans of Nnedi Okorafor’s Remote Control or Nghi Vo’s The Empress of Salt and Fortune.” —Ashley Rayner, Booklist"[God of Mercy] owes a debt to Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, revising that novel's message for the recent past . . . A well-turned dramatization of spiritual and social culture clashes." —Kirkus ReviewsHomegoing meets Black Leopard, Red Wolf, Okezie Nwọka’s debut novel is a powerful reimagining of a history erased.God of Mercy is set in Ichulu, an Igbo village where the people’s worship of their gods is absolute. Their adherence to tradition has allowed them to evade the influences of colonialism and globalization. But the village is reckoning with changes, including a war between gods signaled by Ijeoma, a girl who can fly.As tensions grow between Ichulu and its neighboring colonized villages, Ijeoma is forced into exile. Reckoning with her powers and exposed to the world beyond Ichulu, she is imprisoned by a Christian church under the accusation of being a witch. Suffering through isolation, she comes to understand the truth of merciful love.Reimagining the nature of tradition and cultural heritage and establishing a folklore of the uncolonized, God of Mercy is a novel about wrestling with gods, confronting demons, and understanding one's true purpose.Trade Review"Okezie Nwọka's debut novel, God of Mercy . . . continues a powerful literary tradition of representing Igbo resistance to colonial pressures. Like Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart (1958), God of Mercy narrates both the dignified beauty of Igbo village life and also the village’s struggle with its own traditions."—Cynthia R. Wallace, Ploughshares"While this tremendous work is most readily described as magical realism or as a work of fable, God of Mercy is too powerful to stay within the confines of a single genre . . . Written in verse that recalls the rhythm of fables, Nwoka eloquently details the perseverance and thriving of a young woman descended from a people who have resisted colonization at every turning point in history."—Maya C. James, Locus"Nwoka’s debut feels like a dream, or a fable, or something in between . . . The vestiges of colonialism run deep throughout this novel, as well as themes of forgiveness and compassionate love . . Recommended for fans of Nnedi Okorafor’s Remote Control or Nghi Vo’s The Empress of Salt and Fortune."—Ashley Rayner, Booklist"In Okezie Nwọka’s dazzling and disquieting novel God of Mercy, battles between gods reignite a war between religions . . . Rife with magical realism and full of promise . . . God of Mercy undertakes a scrupulous review of the destructive power of colonialism through an imprisoned, gifted girl."—George Hajjar, Starred Review, Foreword Reviews"Nwoka trusts readers to follow the story without much expository cultural background, and the result feels authentic and organic. Book clubs looking for stories to inspire deep discussion need look no further." —Shelf Awareness"[God of Mercy] owes a debt to Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart, revising that novel's message for the recent past . . . A pair of distinctive qualities [make] Nwọka worth continued attention. First is their command of different rhetorical modes . . . Second is an earned note of optimism . . . A well-turned dramatization of spiritual and social culture clashes."—Kirkus Reviews "Nwọka’s dense, mythologically charged debut . . . immerses the reader in an often-bewildering world . . . [a] stirring coming-of-age story."—Publishers Weekly"Tradition and change clash to devastating effect in Okezie Nwoka's compelling and heartrending debut, God of Mercy . . . Nwoka writes with a sure rhythm all their own, slipping easily between structured passages and stream of consciousness inner monologues."—Jaclyn Fulwood, blogger at Infinite Reads via Shelf Awareness"What an incisive contemplation of being in the world. I read this book with awe and gratitude. It is a love letter to a world in which multiple ways of being may be celebrated. Through their meditation on igbo ontology and its colonial defilement, Nwọka invites us into an exquisite exploration of flight and abandonment, evoking stories that are as old as they are new, timeless as they are timely."—Novuyo Tshuma, author of House of Stone"God of Mercy is an elegantly written, morally rigorous exploration of tradition and belonging. Reminiscent of Toni Morrison's inventive language-making and Chinua Achebe's decolonizing legacy, Okezie Nwọka is a masterful storyteller, and a writer of unusual grace."—Alexia Arthurs, author of How to Love a Jamaican"God of Mercy is a profound exploration of religion, faith, and compassion from a gifted storyteller. Okezie Nwọka creates a richly imagined postcolonial landscape that is at once otherworldly, tragically human, and completely unforgettable."—Maisy Card, author of These Ghosts are Family"God of Mercy isn't just a heart-stopping debut—it's a complete decolonization of the novel, a resounding rejection of the white gaze, a chronicle of a history that has for too long gone untold. This book is at the forefront of a new generation of postcolonial novels, and Nwoka's talent is unmatched."—R.A. Frumkin, author of The Confidence“This beautiful book has magic in it, and grace, and power.”—Kate Christensen, author of The Great Man

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Book SynopsisFor fans of Matt Haig and The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue comes a big-hearted novel following a man who can never be remembered and his journey to become unforgettable...On an ordinary night in an ordinary year, Tommy Llewellyn's doting parents wake in a home without toys and diapers, without photos of their baby scattered about, and without any idea that the small child asleep in his crib is theirs.That's because Tommy is a boy destined to never be remembered.On the same day every year, everyone around him forgets he exists, and he grows up enduring his own universal Reset. That is until something extraordinary happens: Tommy Llewellyn falls in love.Determined to finally carve out a life for himself and land the girl of his dreams, Tommy sets out on a mission to finally trick the Reset and be remembered. But legacies aren't so easily won, and Tommy must figure out what's more important-the things we leave behind or the people we bring along with us.With the speculative edge of How to Stop Time, the unending charm of Maria Semple, and the heart of your favorite book club read, How to Be Remembered is a life-affirming novel about discovering how to leave your mark on the places and people you love most.Trade ReviewHow to Be Remembered wears its heart proudly, earnest in the way of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button or, dare I say, Forrest Gump * The Guardian Australia *Original, engrossing, sweet. * Graeme Simsion, author of The Rosie Project *

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Book SynopsisRosa Ost grows up in Notre-Dame-du-Cachalot, a tiny village at the end of the world, where two industries are king: paper and Boredom. The only daughter of Terese Ost (a fair-to-middling trade unionist and a first-rate Scrabble player), the fate that befalls Rosa is the focus of this tale of long journeys and longer lives, of impossible deaths, unwavering prophecies, and unsettling dreams as she leaves her village for Montreal on a quest to summon the westerly wind that has proved so vital to the local economy. From village gossips, tealeaf-reading exotic dancers, and Acadian red herrings to soothsaying winkles and centuries-old curses, Rosa's Very Own Personal Revolution is a delightful, boundary-pushing story about stories and the storytellers who make them—and a reminder that revolutions in Quebec aren't always quiet.

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Book SynopsisA great war, a great love, and the mythology that unites them; The Hawkman: A Fairy Tale of the Great War is a lyrical adaptation of a beloved classic.Set against the shattering events of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, at the tale's heart are an American schoolteacher—dynamic and imaginative—and an Irish musician, homeless and hated—who have survived bloodshed, poverty, and sickness to be thrown together in an English village. Together they quietly hide from the world in a small cottage. Too soon, reality shatters their serenity, and they must face the parochial community. Unbeknownst to all, a legend is in the making—one that will speak of courage and resilience amidst the forces that brought the couple together even as outside forces threaten to tear them apart. Trade ReviewNominated for the Montaigne Medal from the Eric Hoffer Award http://www.hofferaward.com/Montaigne-Medal-finalists.html

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