Magical Realism

Dive into a world where the extraordinary blends into the everyday with this week's Midweek Reads selection of magical realism!

Updated March 5, 2025
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One hundred years of solitude
García Márquez, Gabriel
Paper Book
Now a Netflix original series! "One Hundred Years of Solitude is the first piece of literature since the Book of Genesis that should be required reading for the entire human race. . . . García Márquez has done nothing less than to create in the reader a sense of all that is profound,...
Violeta : a novel
Allende, Isabel
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * This sweeping novel from the author of A Long Petal of the Sea tells the epic story of Violeta Del Valle, a woman whose life spans one hundred years and bears witness to the greatest upheavals of the twentieth century. "An immersive saga...
Vampires in the lemon grove : and other stories
Russell, Karen
Paper Book
From the author of the New York Times best seller Swamplandia!--a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize--a magical new collection of stories that showcases Karen Russell's gifts at their inimitable best. A dejected teenager discovers that the universe is communicating with...
Get in trouble : stories
Link, Kelly
Paper Book
FINALIST FOR THE PULITZER PRIZE * NATIONAL BESTSELLER * A bewitching story collection from a writer hailed as "the most darkly playful voice in American fiction" (Michael Chabon) and "a national treasure" (Neil Gaiman). NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY ...
Quichotte : a novel
Rushdie, Salman
Paper Book
SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE Quichotte is a love story of profound tenderness and humanity from a great storyteller at his brilliant best. Wise, beautifully written, as heartbreaking as it is wildly comic, its characters unforgettable, its plot dazzlingly suspenseful, it...
A tale for the time being
Ozeki, Ruth L.
Paper Book
A brilliant, unforgettable novel from bestselling author Ruth Ozeki--shortlisted for the Booker Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award "A time being is someone who lives in time, and that means you, and me, and every one of us who is, or was, or ever will be."
The wind knows my name : a novel
Allende, Isabel
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER * "The lives of a Jewish boy escaping Nazi-occupied Europe and a mother and daughter fleeing twenty-first-century El Salvador intersect in this ambitious, intricate novel about war and immigration" (People), from the author of A Long Petal of the Sea and...
The golden house : a novel
Rushdie, Salman
Paper Book
One of the truly great writers of the century reaches beyond the very top of his game in this uncannily timely knockout of a novel. In quality and compelling scope, this is Rushdie's The Godfather meets The Great Gatsby--an unparalleled modern-day American thriller,...
The book of form and emptiness
Ozeki, Ruth
Paper Book
"Heart-breaking and heart-healing--The Book of Form and Emptiness is a triumph." --Matt Haig, New York Times bestselling author of The Midnight LibraryA brilliantly inventive novel about loss, growing up, and our relationship with things One year...
The bear and the nightingale : a novel
Arden, Katherine
Paper Book
Katherine Arden's bestselling debut novel spins an irresistible spell as it announces the arrival of a singular talent with a gorgeous voice.   "A beautiful deep-winter story, full of magic and monsters and the sharp edges of growing up."--Naomi Novik, bestselling...
The wind-up bird chronicle
Murakami, Haruki
Paper Book
Japan's most highly regarded novelist now vaults into the first ranks of international fiction writers with this heroically imaginative novel, which is at once a detective story, an account of a disintegrating marriage, and an excavation of the buried secrets of World War II. In a Tokyo suburb a...
The midnight library
Haig, Matt
Paper Book
An instant New York Times bestsellerA GOOD MORNING AMERICA Book Club Pick Between life and death there is a library, and within that library, the shelves go on forever. Every book provides a chance to try another life you could have lived. To see how things would be if you had...
When we were birds : a novel
Banwo, Ayanna Lloyd
Paper Book
A mythic love story set in Trinidad & Tobago, Ayanna Lloyd Banwo's radiant debut introduces two unforgettable outsiders brought together by their connection with the dead. In the old house on a hill, where the city meets the rainforest, Yejide's mother is dying. She is...
Garden spells
Allen, Sarah Addison.
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * The beloved debut novel from the author of The Other Birds, about an enchanted tree and the extraordinary family that has tended it for generations   The Waverleys have always been a curious family, endowed with peculiar gifts that...
Vanessa Yu's magical Paris tea shop
Lim, Roselle
Paper Book
From the critically acclaimed author of Natalie Tan's Book of Luck and Fortune comes a new delightful novel about exploring all the magical possibilities of life in the most extraordinary city of all: Paris.   Vanessa Yu never wanted to see people's fortunes-...
Klara and the sun
Ishiguro, Kazuo
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER * Once in a great while, a book comes along that changes our view of the world. This magnificent novel from the Nobel laureate and author of Never Let Me Go is "an intriguing take on how artificial intelligence might play a role in our futures ... a...
Peaces
Oyeyemi, Helen
Paper Book
When Otto and Xavier Shin declare their love, an aunt gifts them a trip on a sleeper train to mark their new commitment -- and to get them out of her house. Setting off with their pet mongoose, Otto and Xavier arrive at their sleepy local train station, but quickly deduce that The Lucky Day...
A long petal of the sea : a novel
Allende, Isabel
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * From the author of The House of the Spirits, this epic novel spanning decades and crossing continents follows two young people as they flee the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War in search of a place to call home. "One of the most...
The ocean at the end of the lane
Gaiman, Neil
Paper Book
A brilliantly imaginative and poignant fairy tale from the modern master of wonder and terror, The Ocean at the End of the Lane is Neil Gaiman’s first new novel for adults since his #1 New York Times bestseller Anansi Boys. This bewitching and harrowing tale of mystery and survival,...
The invisible life of Addie LaRue
Schwab, Victoria
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER USA TODAY BESTSELLER NATIONAL INDIE BESTSELLER THE WASHINGTON POST BESTSELLER Recommended by Entertainment Weekly, Real Simple, NPR, Slate, and Oprah...
Novelist as a vocation
Murakami, Haruki
Paper Book
A charmingly idiosyncratic look at writing, creativity, and the author's own novels, from the beloved and best-selling author of1Q84 and Norwegian Wood. In this engaging book, the internationallybest-selling author and famously private writer Haruki Murakami shares...
Life of Pi : a novel
Martel, Yann.
Paper Book
The Jungle Book meets Not Wanted On the Voyage in a triumph of storytelling and originality: a novel, as one character puts it, to make you believe in God. Piscine Molitor Patel, nicknamed Pi, lives in Pondicherry, India, where his family runs a zoo. Little Pi is a great...
The snow child : a novel
Ivey, Eowyn.
Paper Book
In this magical debut, a couple's lives are changed forever by the arrival of a little girl, wild and secretive, on their snowy doorstep. Alaska, 1920: a brutal place to homestead, and especially tough for recent arrivals Jack and Mabel. Childless, they are drifting apart -- he...
The shadow of the wind
Ruiz Zafón, Carlos
Paper Book
"Anyone who enjoys novels that are scary, erotic, touching, tragic and thrilling should rush right out to the nearest bookstore and pick up The Shadow of the Wind. Really, you should." --Michael Dirda, The Washington Post "Wondrous...masterful...The ...
Pan's labyrinth
Toro, Guillermo del
DVD
Mexican filmmaker Guillermo del Toro returns to the phantasmagorical cinema that defined such early fare as Cronos and The Devil's Backbone with this haunting fantasy-drama set in the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War and detailing the strange journeys of an imaginative young girl who may be the...
The alchemist
Coelho, Paulo
Paper Book
AN INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER * OVER 80 MILLION COPIES SOLD WORLDWIDE "Translated into 80 languages, the allegory teaches us about dreams, destiny, and the reason we are all here."--Oprah Daily, "Best Self-Help Books of a Generation" "It's a brilliant, magical, life-changing book that...
The house in the cerulean sea
Klune, TJ
Paper Book
A NEW YORK TIMES, USA TODAY, and WASHINGTON POST BESTSELLER! A 2021 Alex Award winner! The 2021 RUSA Reading List: Fantasy Winner! An Indie Next Pick! One of Publishers Weekly's "Most Anticipated Books of Spring 2020"...
The ten thousand doors of January
Harrow, Alix E.
Paper Book
"A gorgeous, aching love letter to stories, storytellers, and the doors they lead us through...absolutely enchanting."--Christina Henry, bestselling author of Alice and Lost Boys LOS ANGELES TIMES BESTSELLER! Finalist for the 2020 Hugo, Nebula,...
The time traveler's wife
Niffenegger, Audrey.
Paper Book
**Soon to be a TV series** Audrey Niffenegger's innovative debut, The Time Traveler's Wife, is the story of Clare, a beautiful art student, and Henry, an adventuresome librarian, who have known each other since Clare was six and Henry was thirty-six, and were married when...
The shape of water
Toro, Guillermo del
Paper Book
The 2018 Academy Award's Best Picture of the Year and New York Times-bestselling novel, The Shape of Water. From visionary storyteller Guillermo del Toro and celebrated author Daniel Kraus comes this haunting, heartbreaking love story. "[A]...

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