Magical Realism

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Other Birds
by Sarah Addison Allen

Arriving on Mallow Island, right off the coast of South Carolina, to claim her late mother's apartment, Zoey meets her eccentric and secretive neighbors, including a girl on the run, a lonely chef, a legendary writer and three ghosts, each with their own stories whose endings haven't been written yet.
Violeta
by Isabel Allende

"This sweeping novel from the New York Times bestselling 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"
When We Were Birds
by Ayanna Lloyd Banwo

The introduction of a singularly stunning new voice in fiction, Ayanna Lloyd Banwo's When We Were Birds is a mythic love story set in contemporary Trinidad & Tobago about two young outsiders brought together by their connection with the dead.
Unleashed
by Cai Emmons

As Lu and George Barnes and their daughter Pippa grow apart, tensions outside the family mount as well; women have been disappearing across the country with no worldly explanation, all while California's wildfire season brings about a surprising reckoning that none of them can avoid.
Things We Lost in the Fire
by Mariana Enriquez

A U.S. release of an anthology of stories by a debut writer from Buenos Aires explores macabre dimensions of life in contemporary Argentina, from women who set themselves on fire to protest domestic violence to a 9-year-old serial killer who acts out in gruesome ways in her classroom.
Love Medicine
by Louise Erdrich

The lives and destinies of the Kashpaws and the Lamartines intertwine on and around a North Dakota Indian reservation from 1934 to 1984, in a tale of survival, tenacity, tradition, injustice, and love.
Ripe 
by Sarah Rose Etter

A year into her dream job at a cutthroat Silicon Valley startup, Cassie finds herself trapped in a corporate nightmare. Between the long hours, toxic bosses, and unethical projects, she also struggles to reconcile the glittering promise of a city where obscene wealth lives alongside abject poverty. Ivy League grads complain about the snack selection from a conference room with a view of houseless people bathing in the bay. Startup burnouts leap into the paths of commuter trains and men literally set themselves on fire in the streets. Though isolated, Cassie is never alone. From her earliest memory, a miniature black hole has been her constant companion. It feeds on her depression and anxiety, its size changing in relation to her distress. The black hole watches, but it also waits. Its relentless pull draws Cassie ever-closer as the world around her unravels. When her CEO's demands cross an illegal threshold and she ends up unexpectedly pregnant, Cassie must decide whether the tempting fruits of Silicon Valley are really worth it.
The King of Infinite Space
by Lyndsay Faye

After his Broadway theater baron father dies mysteriously, Ben Dane, his best friend Horatio and his artist ex-fiancé Lia, on one explosive night, are drawn into otherworldly events where the only outcome is death.
One Hundred Years of Solitude
by Gabriel García Márquez

Tells the story of the Buendia family, set against the background of the evolution and eventual decadence of a small South American town.
The Tin Drum
by Günter Grass

To mark the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of this classic, a new translation of the Nobel Prize winner's story is offered, which includes a huge cast of intriguing characters, including Oskar Matzerath, the indomitable drummer; his family; Oskar's midget friends Bebra and Roswitha Raguna, and many more.
The Charmed Wife
by Olga Grushin

Cinderella married the man of her dreams--the perfect ending she deserved after diligently following all the fairy-tale rules. Yet now, two children and thirteen and a half years later, things have gone badly wrong and her life is far from perfect. One night, fed up, she sneaks out of the palace to get help from the Witch who, for a price, offers love potions to disgruntled housewives. But as the old hag flings the last ingredients into the cauldron, Cinderella doesn't ask for a love spell to win back her Prince Charming.
Homegoing
by Yaa Gyasi

Two half sisters, unknown to each other, are born into different villages in eighteenth-century Ghana and experience profoundly different lives and legacies throughout subsequent generations
Queenie Malone's Paradise Hotel
by Ruth Hogan

Tilly was a bright, outgoing little girl who loved fizzy drinks, naughty words, and liked playing with ghosts and matches. When her beloved father suddenly disappeared, she and her fragile, difficult mother moved into Queenie Malone's magnificent Paradise Hotel in Brighton, with its endearing and loving family of misfits--including the exuberant and compassionate Queenie herself. But then Tilly was dealt another shattering blow when her mother sent her off to boarding school with little explanation and no warning, and she lost her beloved chosen family. Now an adult, Tilda has grown into an independent woman still damaged by her mother's unaccountable cruelty. Wary of people, her only true friend is her dog, Eli. When her estranged mother dies, Tilda returns to Brighton and the home she loved best. With the help of the still-dazzling Queenie, she sets about unraveling the mystery of her exile from The Paradise Hotel, only to discover that her mother was not the woman she thought she knew at all...and that it's never too late to write your own happy ending.
Boys of Alabama
by Genevieve Hudson

In this 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.

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.
The Snow Child
by Eowyn Ivey

A childless couple working a farm in the brutal landscape of 1920 Alaska discover a little girl living in the wilderness, with a red fox as a companion, and begin to love the strange, almost-supernatural child as their own. 60,000 first printing.
The Change
by Kirsten Miller

When midlife changes give three different women special powers, they come together to solve the murder of a teenage girl whom the police have written off as a drug- addicted sex worker—an investigation leading to a world of stupendous wealth where rules don’t apply. 100,000 first printing.
Circe
by Madeline Miller

The daughter of Titans clashes with one of the most vengeful Olympians, forcing her to choose between the worlds of the gods and mortals. (historical fiction). (This book was listed in a previous issue of Forecast.) Reprint. A #1 New York Times best-seller. 75,000 first printing. AB. K. LJ. NYT. PW. SLJ.
Gods of Jade and Shadow
by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

A dark fairy tale inspired by Mexican folklore is set against the backdrop of the Jazz Age in Mexico's underworld, where a young dreamer is sent by the Mayan God of Death on a life-changing journey.
Paradise
by Toni Morrison

The Nobel Prize-winning author of The Bluest Eye captures the dreams, memories, conflicts, and complex interior lives of the citizens of a small, all-black town as four young women are brutally attacked in a convent near the town during the 1970s, in a novel that blends past, present, and future.
Peaces
by Helen Oyeyemi

Honeymooning aboard a historic former tea-smuggling train, newlyweds Otto and Xavier enjoy the locomotive’s fantastical accommodations before encountering a secretive fellow passenger, who imparts a surprising message.
The Book of Form and Emptiness
by Ruth Ozeki

After the tragic death his beloved musician father, fourteen-year-old Benny Oh begins to hear voices. The voices belong to the things in his house-a sneaker, a broken Christmas ornament, a piece of wilted lettuce. Although Benny doesn't understand what these things are saying, he can sense their emotional tone; some are pleasant, a gentle hum or coo, but others are snide, angry and full of pain. When his mother, Annabelle, develops a hoarding problem, the voices grow more clamorous. At first, Benny tries to ignore them, but soon the voices follow him outside the house, onto the street and at school, driving him at last to seek refuge in the silence of a large public library, where objects are well-behaved and know to speak in whispers. There, Benny discovers a strange new world, where "things happen." He falls in love with a mesmerizing street artist with a smug pet ferret, who uses the library as her performance space. He meets a homeless philosopher-poet, who encourages him to ask important questions and find his own voice amongst the many. And he meets his very own Book-a talking thing-who narrates Benny's life and teaches him to listen to the things that truly matter. 
The God of Small Things
by Arundhati Roy

In 1969 Kerala, India, Rahel and her twin brother, Estha, struggle to forge a childhood for themselves amid the destruction of their family life, as they discover that the entire world can be transformed in a single moment. Winner of the Booker Prize.
Gold Diggers
by Sanjena Sathian

A satirical coming-of-age story follows the experiences of an Indian-American teen in the Bush-era Atlanta suburbs, who joins his crush’s plot to use an ancient alchemical potion to meet high parental expectations, triggering devastating consequences.
Once Upon a River
by Diane Setterfield

After a mysterious stranger bearing a dead infant dies on the doorstep of an ancient inn on the river Thames and that infant miraculously returns to life the locals puzzle to discern where the child came from and what her apparent resurrection means.
The Chosen and the Beautiful
by Nghi Vo

Immigrant. Socialite. Magician. Jordan Baker grows up in the most rarefied circles of 1920s American society--she has money, education, a killer golf handicap, and invitations to some of the most exclusive parties of the Jazz Age. She's also queer and Asian, a Vietnamese adoptee treated as an exotic attraction by her peers, while the most important doors remain closed to her. But the world is full of wonders: infernal pacts and dazzling illusions, lost ghosts and elemental mysteries. In all paper is fire, and Jordan can burn the cut paper heart out of a man. She just has to learn how.
Sharks in the Time of Saviors
by Kawai Strong Washburn

When a child falls overboard and is returned safely to his mother by a shark, his miraculous rescue is hailed as a sign from ancient Hawaiian gods, complicating his family’s troubles amid a collapsing sugarcane industry.
The Unmaking of June Farrow 
by Adrienne Young

In the small mountain town of Jasper, North Carolina, June Farrow is waiting for fate to find her. The Farrow women are known for their thriving flower farm--and the mysterious curse that has plagued their family line. The whole town remembers the madness that led to Susanna Farrow's disappearance, leaving June to be raised by her grandmother and haunted by rumors. It's been a year since June started seeing and hearing things that weren't there. Faint wind chimes, a voice calling her name, and a mysterious door appearing out of nowhere--the signs of what June always knew was coming. But June is determined to end the curse once and for all, even if she must sacrifice finding love and having a family of her own. After her grandmother's death, June discovers a series of cryptic clues regarding her mother's decades-old disappearance, except they only lead to more questions. But could the door she once assumed was a hallucination be the answer she's been searching for? The next time it appears, June realizesshe can touch it and walk past the threshold. And when she does, she embarks on a journey that will not only change both the past and the future, but also uncover the lingering mysteries of her small town and entangle her heart in an epic star-crossed love. 
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