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
From the Nobel Prize winning novelist, this epic tale of seven generations of the Buendia family spans a hundred years of Latin American history. The brilliant, bestselling, landmark novel chronicles the irreconcilable conflict between the desire for solitude and the need for love--in rich,...
Pedro Páramo
Rulfo, Juan.
Paper Book
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...
Awayland : stories
Ausubel, Ramona
Ebook
  "Excellent and peculiar... Ausubel's imagination...wants to offer consolation for how ghastly things can get, a type of healing that only reading can provide. All 11 of these stories are deeply involving." -New York Times Book Review "Funny, endearing...
Vampires in the lemon grove : and other stories
Russell, Karen
Audiobook
From the author of the instant New York Times best seller Swamplandia! (a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize), a dazzling new collection of stories that showcases Karen Russell's gifts at their inimitable best. In the collection's marvelous title story, two aging vampires in a sun...
Get in trouble : stories
Link, Kelly
Audiobook
NATIONAL BESTSELLER * PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST * A bewitching story collection from the author of White Cat, Black Dog and The Book of Love, hailed as "the most darkly playful voice in American fiction" (Michael Chabon) and "our greatest living fabulist" (Carmen Maria Machado) ...
Quichotte : a novel
Rushdie, Salman
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * An epic Don Quixote for the modern age, "a brilliant, funny, world-encompassing wonder" (Time) from internationally bestselling author Salman Rushdie   SHORTLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE * "Lovely,...
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
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * A modern American epic set against the panorama of contemporary politics and culture--a hurtling, page-turning mystery that is equal parts The Great Gatsby and The Bonfire of the Vanities NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR...
The book of form and emptiness
Ozeki, Ruth
Paper Book
Winner of the Women's Prize for Fiction "No one writes like Ruth Ozeki--a triumph." --Matt Haig, New York Times bestselling author of The Midnight Library "Inventive, vivid, and propelled by a sense of wonder." --TIME "If you've lost your...
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 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
Audiobook
A mythic love story set in Trinidad, Ayanna Lloyd Banwo's radiant debut is a masterwork of lush imagination and exuberant storytelling--a spellbinding and hopeful novel about inheritance, loss, and love's seismic power to heal. "Roots the reader in [Trinidad's] traditions...
Garden spells
Allen, Sarah Addison.
Paper Book
In a garden surrounded by a tall fence, tucked away behind a small, quiet house in an even smaller town, is an apple tree that is rumored to bear a very special sort of fruit. In this luminous debut novel, Sarah Addison Allen tells the story of that enchanted tree, and the extraordinary people who...
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
"Enchanting . . . the most surprising, confounding, and oddly insightful couple's trip in recent literary history." --Entertainment Weekly The prize-winning, bestselling author of Gingerbread; Boy, Snow, Bird; and What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours...
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
NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER * An insightful look into the mind of a master storyteller--and a unique look at the craft of writing from the beloved and best-selling author of 1Q84, Norwegian Wood, and What I Talk About When I Talk About Running....
Life of Pi : a novel
Martel, Yann.
Paper Book
NOW ON BROADWAY The international bestseller and modern classic of adventure, survival, and the power of storytelling is now an award-winning play.  "A story to make you believe in the soul-sustaining power of fiction."--Los Angeles Times Book Review  After the...
The snow child : a novel
Ivey, Eowyn.
Audiobook
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
The alchemist
Coelho, Paulo
Paper Book
An international bestseller Over 80 million copies sold worldwide A PBS Great American Read Top 100 pick A special 25th anniversary edition of the extraordinary international bestseller, including a new Foreword by Paulo Coelho. Combining magic, mysticism...
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
The love story of Henry and Claire whose lives are punctuated by Henry's disappearance to different points in time--sometimes even back to visit Claire as a young woman. When Henry meets Claire, he is twenty-eight, andshe is twenty. He's a hip, handsome librarian; she is an art student...
Big fish
Burton, Tim
DVD
A father who loves to tell tales of his many adventures in life is trying to reconnect with his estranged son. Slowly, through the fascinating tales, the two begin to understand each other, and form a family again.
The shape of water
Toro, Guillermo del
Paper Book
It is 1962, and Elisa Esposito-mute her whole life, orphaned as a child-is struggling with her humdrum existence as a janitor working the graveyard shift at Baltimore's Occam Aerospace Research Center. Were it not for Zelda, a protective coworker, and Giles, her loving neighbor, she doesn't know how...

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