I have been to three “readings” lately, at local bookstores. If you haven’t been to a reading, I suggest that you go to one and make sure to buy a book while you are there. Readings are interesting and cool and they are in danger of becoming extinct if people don’t show up, just as independent bookstores are in danger of becoming extinct if no one buys from them. (At the very least, if your indie bookstore has online ordering, you could check there before buying elsewhere and place orders to pick up.)

One of the readings I attended was for my friend, Thomas Wolf (there are three of them; the one who wrote I Am Charlotte Simmons and The Bonfire of the Vanities (Tom Wolfe) is deceased, as is the North Carolina Thomas Wolfe. The internet has a hard time distinguishing between them). My friend writes historical true crime with his partner, Patricia L. Bryan, and historical baseball books. He has published two of these baseball books in the past few years (and is under contract for another) and was reading for The Called Shot, his latest.

At his reading, I learned that Daniel Wallace was coming to the same bookstore two weeks out. A fan of Big Fish, I had been to a Daniel Wallace reading years before, but I decided to come back for this one, where he would talk about his first nonfiction book, This Isn’t Going to End Well, about his deceased brother-in-law. Then I got a text from a friend asking me to go to a third reading, for a Chapel Hill author named Brian Biswas, a friend of hers. He would be reading from The Astronomer. Turns out that The Astronomer is magical realism, my favorite genre of all time, which is also the genre of Big Fish. I was intrigued to learn that Biswas took some of his own experiences and shook them up into a fiction account that crosses the hallucinations of mental illness with magical realism, bending the rules of magical realism a bit. He was funny and interesting, and he read so calmly. I had to leave early to make an appointment, but I was fascinated and walked away with a signed copy of the book (and used copies of Never Let Me Go (a magical realism author) and Salvage the Bones).

Image from Whiskey Tit

I have begun lists of best magical realism books before. I was surprised, though, when I couldn’t find a posted blog on The Starving Artist for them. Perhaps I had given up. Perhaps it just seemed like a repeat of so many other categories mashed together. I mean, magical realism is sort of a sub-genre, or a category that can encompass books from a few genres. But I have always loved magical realism; I often write magical realism, and so I made the list. And then I thought we might talk about it a little bit, first.

As is appropriate in so many situations, let us begin with a definition. Magical realism—sometimes called magic realism—is a fiction style (or perhaps a genre or sub-genre) that begins with realism and then weaves in components of speculative fiction that remain unqualified. I am drawn to this writing because I think our lives and the world are woven with components of the supernatural. Plus it’s just fun to take normal people and circumstances and chuck in a little of the fantastic, see how it goes, and don’t bother explaining it because this is fiction, this is the author’s world. I often define it as the real world with just a splash or two of fantasy thrown in. Usually the definition of magical realism also includes a little history: it was first popularized and used widely by Latinx authors in the 1900s and some scholars argue that it is bound to this history, so that authors outside of the Latinx culture cannot produce real magical realism. While this is a distinct type of magical realism which deserves a nod and some applause, I do not think magical realism is limited to it (or even began there—there is nothing new under the sun). Indeed, it exemplifies a very universal way of thinking and of telling story, so there should be some name for it as a more meta category, even if we then have a specific name for this 20th century Latin-American magical realism. (My introduction to magical realism, like so many others, was Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude and I moved on to Isabel Allende.)

I found an interesting article on Reedsy Discovery that parses out three essentials of magical realism: a real-world setting, supernatural happenings that are left unexplained, and a literary fiction tone. As opposed to urban fantasy, which often features magical beings in a more realistic world, magical realism stars normal peeps in a world we would recognize as either our own or a historical one. This means that magical realism is often a commentary on social ills, like in The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead and can also be used to explore the mental, the emotional, or—in the case of my own magical realism—a deeper reality. Urban fantasy also explains the magic to some extent, while magical realism never really does. In the Discovery article, it says, “The characters seem to take it for granted: they react to it emotionally instead of questioning how it works. And although it’s never subjected to the cold light of logic, it makes a kind of dream-like, internal sense.” (I would change the word “logic” here to “the world’s logic,” because plenty of speculative fiction explains things only in relation to the fantasy or science fiction world that it is set in, not really logic or science. Magical realism doesn’t even explain things in relation to their fictional worlds, which is—again—our world.) Sometimes this allows the reader to experience a feeling on the page. Sometimes it just lives in the mystery of life. Other, more scholarly, definitions include that it must be matter-of-fact (which is a great way to put it) and use the fantasy element(s) as an extended metaphor.

Is magical realism a more “literary” category? Must it be a sub-genre of literary fiction? Or can it just be a category of realism—that part in the bookstore that contains all the usual, fiction books? It is interesting to think of it as the love child of fantasy and literary fiction, because that is basically the way I explain it to people: What do you write? Oh, I write on a spectrum from literary fiction to fantasy and I often land on magical realism, which is right there in the middle. I’ve said this like a hundred times. But does it have to be literary? Let’s just say that it tends to be literary, meaning high-falutin’, with lush descriptions and poetic conventions. Magical realism is often slower, more experimental, and prettier sounding due to careful word-smithing, than the average fantasy novel. But I don’t think it would have to be, would it? Just like you can write fantasy or science fiction that is literary. Would that make it literary fiction? Or speculative fiction? Or both? Perhaps most magical realism is literary fiction. I don’t think we need to get our knickers in a twist too much about genres and categories—that’s more just something publishers need to trade in books: to buy and market and sell (though plenty of academics like to talk subjects like these to death). Let’s suffice it to say that magical realism has a better reputation for being fancy than speculative fiction, but let’s not limit either of them. Magical realism also hob-knobs with categories and subgenres like curio fiction, surrealism, fabulism, and even Gothic fiction.)

All this does mean that my first book, Benevolent (self-published) is definitely magical realism. It takes place in the Detroit suburbs in the 1990s and is about a fairly normal girl, Gabby, who likes to do good and who is loved by a boy. The Arthurian-like legends in the novel, however, are peopled by an ancient queen, angel, and sage, and completely without warning or explanation these characters show up at key moments in the story—they just whisk in and then back out. It is also in the style of literary fiction, the structure is alternative in a constant flux of flashback and varying POVs, and the magic is meant as a metaphor for religion or—more aptly—the actual supernatural or unexplained-but-widely-experienced. I have a few other short stories and novels in the works that also neatly fit into what we just discussed. (I am currently working on two fantasy novels/series, however.)

So now, without further ado, here is my compiled-from-internet-lists list of best magical realism books/TBR:

(Note: There are definitely some disputed titles on here. Are they magical realism? Let’s give them a try.)

One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez *** Life of Pi , Yann Martel ***Red Sorghum, Mo YanMidnight’s Children, Salman RushdieBeloved, Toni MorrisonThe Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Haruki MurakamiThe House of the Spirits, Isabel Allende The Ocean at the End of the Lane , Neil GaimanThe Master and Margarita, Mikhail BulkagovLike Water for Chocolate, Laura EsquivelMrs. Caliban, Rachel IngallsBeloved, Toni MorrisonThe Famished Road, Ben OkriTropic of Orange, Karen Tei YamashitaKafka on the Shore, Haruki MurakamiThe Salt Roads, Nalo HopkinsonThe Upstairs House, Julia FinePerfume: The Story of a Murderer, Patrick SuskindNights at the Circus, Angela CarterThe Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake, Aimee BenderThe Daughter of the Doctor and the Saint, Edward SwiftThe Snow Child, Eowyn IveyThe Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender, Leslye WaltonThe Immortalists, Chloe Benjamin The Book Thief, Marcus Zusak *Exit West, Mohsin HamidThe Water Dancer, Ta-Nehisi CoatesThe Other Black Girl, Zakiya Dalila Harris,The Scent Keeper, Erica BauermeisterNothing to See Here, Kevin WilsonLife After Life, Kate AtkinsonVanessa Yu’s Magical Paris Tea Shop, Roselle LimIn a Holidaze, Christian LaurenHow to Stop Time, Matt HaigBeasts of Extraordinary Circumstance, Ruth Emmie LangMr. Penumbra’s 24 Hour Bookstore, Robin SloaneThe Midnight Library, Matt HaigThe Starless Sea, Erin Morgenstern The Underground Railroad, Colson WhiteheadSing, Unburied, Sing, Jesmyn WardEcho, Pam Nunoz Ryan“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” F. Scott Fitzgerald“Land of Big Numbers,” Te-Ping Chen“The Office of Historical Corrections,” Danielle EvansThe Ten Thousand Doors of January, Alix E. HarrowOnce Upon a River, Diane SetterfieldThe Miniaturist, Jessie BurtonOne Italian Summer, Rebecca SerleHouse on the Cerulean Sea, T. J. KluneThe Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, V. E. SchwabThe Magic Strings of Frankie Presto, Mitch AlbumFicciones, Jorge Luis Borges Their Eyes Were Watching God , Zora Neale HurstonThe Girl with Glass Feet, Ali ShawSong of Solomon, Toni MorrisonThe Rage of Dragons, Evan WinterKaikeyi, Vaishnavi Patel American Gods , Neil Gaiman *Miss Marvel, G. Willow WilsonDandelion Wine, Ray BradburyThe Book of Form and Emptiness, Ruth OzekiPedro Paramo, Juan RulfoIf on a Winter’s Night a Traveler, Italo CalvinoHaroun and the Sea of Stories, Salman RushdieA Man Was Going Down the Road, Otar ChiladzeThe Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep, H. G. ParryTrail of Lightning, Rebecca RoanhorseThe Tin Drum, Gunter GlassThings Invisible to See, Nancy WillardMagic for Beginners, Kelly LinkDona Barbara, Romulo GallegosSignal to Noise, Silvia Moreno-GarciaThe River King, Alice HoffmanGold Diggers, Sanjena SathianLabyrinths, Jorge Luis BorgesSweep, Jonathan AuxierHomegoing, Yaa GyasiBetween the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi CoatesWe Were Eight Years in Power, Ta-Nehisi CoatesA Monster Calls, Patrick NessThe Aleph and Other Stories, Jorge Luis BorgesGoodnight Moon, Margaret Wise Brown *The Fifth Season, N. K. JemisonThe Library of Babel, Jorge Luis BorgesPiranesi, Susanna Clarke Ghosts , Raina Telgemeier ***The Hummingbird’s Daughter, Luis Alberto UrreaHopscotch, Julio CortazarThe Island of Missing Trees, Elif ShafakThe Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse, Louise ErdrichThe Stories of Eva Luna, Isabel AllendeDona Flor and Her Two Husbands, Jorge AmadoThe War of the Saints, Jorge AmadoThe Road to Tamazunchale, Ron AriasThe Man Who Walked Through Walls, Marcel AymeThe Tartar Steppe, Dino BuzzatiThe Baron in the Trees, Italo CalvinoExplosion in a Cathedral, Alejo CarpentierThe Kingdom of This World, Alejo CarpentierSo Far from God, Ana CastilloSacred River, Syl Cheney-CokerA Man Was Going Down the Road, Otar ChildzeClaire of the Sea Light, Edwidge DanticatThe Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot DiazThe Mistress of Spices, Chitra Banerjee DivakaruniThe Shell Collector, Anthony DoerrThe Obscene Bird of Night, Jose DonosoThings We Lost in the Fire, Mariana EnriquezTracks, Louise ErdrichThe Law of Love, Laura EsquivelEverything Is Illuminated, Jonathan Safran FoerDreaming in Cuban, Cristina GarciaThe Nose, Nikolai GogolThe Tin Drum, Gunter GrassThe Monsters of Templeton, Lauren GroffWinter’s Tale, Mark HelprinChocolat, Joanne HarrisNever Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro The Buried Giant , Kazuo IshiguroForest Dark, Nicole KraussThe Bleeding of the Stone, Ibrahim al-KoniSearch Sweet Country, Kojo LiangChronicle of Death Foretold, Gabriel Garcia Marquez Love in the Time of Cholera , Gabriel Garcia Marquez *When the Moon Was Ours, Anna Marie McLemoreWild Beauty, Anna Marie McLemoreThe Girl Who Could Silence the Wind, Meg MedinaParadise, Toni MorrisonHard-Boiled Wonderland or the End of the World, Haruki MurakamiPale Fire, Vladimir NobokovThe Tiger’s Wife, Tea ObrehtA Tale for the Time Being, Ruth OzekiThe Famished Road, Ben OkriSongs of Enchantment, Ben OkriInfinite Riches, Ben OkriThe Third Policeman, Flann O’BrienThe Icarus Girl, Helen OyeyemiSnow, Orhan PamukThe White Castle, Orhan PamukThe Dictionary of the Khazars, Milorad PavicGeographies of Home, Loida Maritza PerezMumbo Jumbo, Ismael Reed…And the Earth Did Not Devour Him, Tomas RiveraThe God of Small Things, Arundhati RoyHaroun and the Sea of Stories, Salman RushdieSwamplandia!, Karen RussellOf Bees and Mist, Erick SetiawanWeaving Water, Ryhaan Shah White Teeth , Zadie Smith ***The Bonesetter’s Daughter, Amy TanWizard of the Crow, Ngugi wa Thiang’oThe Palm-Wine Drinkard, Amos Tutola Big Fish , Daniel Wallace *Orlando, Virginia WoolfThe Waves, Virginia WoolfThrough the Arc of the Rainforest, Karen Tei YamashitaLand of Love and Drowning, Tiphanie YaniqueHow to Escape from a Leper Colony, Tiphanie Yanique