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Magical Realism

Mark Twain once said “It’s no wonder that truth is stranger than fiction. Fiction has to make sense." What happens when the truth doesn’t make sense? Is it magic? Is it a lie? Or maybe it’s one of the stories in one of these titles.

Tacoma Public Library

14 items

  • "In the wake of World War I in the small, Southern town of Bellhaven, South Carolina, the town folk believe they've found a little slice of heaven in a mysterious chapel in the woods. But they soon realize that evil can come in the most…
    BookNashville : Thomas Nelson, [2018] — F MARKE-J
  • Music is magic in this vibrant and imaginative debut novel set in a fantastical version of New Orleans where a battle for the city's soul brews between two young mages, a vengeful wraith, and one powerful song. Nola is a city full of…
    BookNew York, NY : Redhook, 2022. — F JENNI-A
  • In a small back alley in Tokyo at a century-old coffee shop rumored to offer patrons the chance to travel back in time, four customers reevaluate their formative life choices.
    Book[Toronto, Ontario, Canada] : Hanover Square Press, 2020. — F KAWAG-T
  • "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…
    BookNew York City : Viking, [2021] — F OZEKI-R
  • "A queer coming-of-age told with magical realism, Boys of Alabama guides us through 16-year-old Max's first year in America. When Max meets Pan in Chemistry class, they embark on a quixotic, strange, and consuming relationship. They tell…
    BookNew York : Liveright Publishing Corporation, a division of W. W. Norton & Company, [2020] — F HUDSO-G
  • "Laila desperately wants to become a mother, but each of her previous pregnancies has ended in heartbreak. This time has to be different, so she turns to the Melancons, an old and powerful Harlem family known for their caul, a precious…
    BookNew York, NY : Harper, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, [2021] — F JERKI-M
  • "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…
    BookNew York : G. P. Putnam's Sons, [2021] — F GRUSH-O
  • "First book of a stunning new series by Hugo award-winning and NYT bestselling author N. K. Jemisin. Every great city has a soul. Some are ancient as myths, and others are as new and destructive as children. New York? She's got six. When a…
    BookNew York : Orbit, an imprint of Hachette Book Group, 2020. — F JEMIS-N
  • "A floundering second-generation teenager growing up in the Bush-era Atlanta suburbs, Neil Narayan is authentic, funny, and smart. He just doesn't share the same drive as everyone around him. He just wants his neighbor across the…
    BookNew York : Penguin Press, 2021. — F SATHI-S
  • "In this lush, magical, queer, and feminist take on Hamlet in modern-day New York City, a neuro-atypical philosopher, along with his best friend Horatio and artist ex-fiancé Lia, are caught up in the otherworldly events surrounding the…
    BookNew York : G. P. Putnam's Sons, [2021] — F FAYE-L
  • "A story following an old woman and a young soldier in a war-torn country as they seek a mythical creature called the Rain Heron"--
    BookNew York : FSG Originals, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2021. — F ARNOT-R
  • "Emerson Wilde has built the life of her dreams. Youngest Chamber of Commerce president in St. Cyprian history, successful indie bookstore owner, and lucky enough to have her best friends as found family? Done. But when Emerson is attacked…
    BookToronto, Ontario : Graydon House, [2022] — F BECK-H
  • "In Nigeria, vagabonds are those whose existence is literally outlawed: the poor, the queer, the drivers and dancers, the abused and displaced and vulnerable. Blending unvarnished realism with myth and fantasy, Vagabonds! traces characters…
    BookNew York : Riverhead Books, 2022. — F OSUND-E
  • "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…
    BookNew York : Doubleday, 2022. — F BANWO-A