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Updated by Stephen Cunningham on Mar 19, 2024
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Best Magical Realism Books to Read

Here is our recommendations for the Best Magical Realism books to read. Add your favorites to the list and vote for the ones you like

2

Beloved by Toni Morrison

Beloved by Toni Morrison

This brutally powerful, mesmerizing story is an unflinchingly look into the abyss of slavery, from the acclaimed Nobel Prize winner Toni Morrison.
https://quizlit.org/15-best-magical-realism-books#2-beloved-by-toni-morrison

7

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

One Hundred Years of Solitude is a seamless blend of fantasy and reality. Marquez’s great masterpiece is the story of seven generations of the Buendia family and of Macondo, the town they have built. Though little more than a settlement surrounded by mountains, Macondo has its wars and disasters, even its wonders and miracles.
https://quizlit.org/15-best-magical-realism-books#10-one-hundred-years-of-solitude-by-gabriel-garcia-marquez

1

The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman

The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman

The Ocean at the End of the Lane is the bestselling magical novel from Neil Gaiman, one of the most brilliant storytellers of our generation.
https://quizlit.org/15-best-magical-realism-books#1-the-ocean-at-the-end-of-the-lane-by-neil-gaiman

3

Exit West by Mohsin Hamid

Exit West by Mohsin Hamid

Imagine a reality where migration didn’t involve a journey, and instead, anyone could simply walk through a door and be in another country. That’s what author Mohsin Hamid does in Exit West, his 2017 novel that tells the story of two characters — Saeed and Nadia — who meet and fall in love as their country breaks out in a civil war.
https://quizlit.org/15-best-magical-realism-books#4-exit-west-by-mohsin-hamid

4

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz

Encapsulating Dominican-American history, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao opens our eyes to an astonishing vision of the contemporary American experience and explores the endless human capacity to persevere—and risk it all—in the name of love.
https://quizlit.org/15-best-magical-realism-books#6-the-brief-wondrous-life-of-oscar-waonbspby-junot-diaz

5

Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami

Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami

In this relentlessly inventive novel, Japan most popular fiction writer hurtles into the consciousness of the West.
https://quizlit.org/15-best-magical-realism-books#7-hardboiled-wonderland-and-the-end-of-the-world-by-haruki-murakami

6

The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates

The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates

Young Hiram Walker was born into bondage–and lost his mother and all memory of her when he was a child–but he is also gifted with a mysterious power.
https://quizlit.org/15-best-magical-realism-books#9-the-water-dancer-by-tanehisi-coates

8

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

One morning in 1945, a boy is driven by his father to a mysterious place hidden away in the heart of the old city: The Cemetery of Lost Books. There, Daniel Sempere finds a cursed book which will change the course of his life and plunge him into a labyrinth of intrigue and secrets concealed in the dark soul of the city.
https://quizlit.org/15-best-magical-realism-books#12-the-shadow-of-the-wind-by-carlos-ruiz-zafon

9

Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell

Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell

Cloud Atlas is a novel comprised of six interconnected tales, each written in a unique style and told from a differing perspective:
https://quizlit.org/15-best-magical-realism-books#14-cloud-atlas-by-david-mitchell

10

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke

On Tuesdays and Fridays Piranesi sees his friend, the Other. Messages begin to appear, scratched out in chalk on the pavements. There is someone new in the House. But who are they and what do they want? Are they a friend or do they bring destruction and madness as the Other claims?
https://quizlit.org/15-best-magical-realism-books#3-piranesi-by-susanna-clarke

11

The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov

The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov

One spring afternoon, the Devil, trailing fire and chaos in his wake, weaves himself out of the shadows and into Moscow.
https://quizlit.org/15-best-magical-realism-books#5-the-master-and-margarita-by-mikhail-bulgakov

12

The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey

The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey

Based on a Russian fairy tale, The Snow Child is a tale of the shoring up of defences, psychological and literal, against the cold and dark. Set in the 1920s, the novel follows the move of middle-aged Jack and Mabel from ‘back east’ America to a remote homestead in Alpine, Alaska.

https://quizlit.org/15-best-magical-realism-books#8-the-snow-child-by-eowyn-ivey

13

The House of the Spirits By Isabel Allende

The House of the Spirits By Isabel Allende

The astonishing debut of a gifted storyteller, The House of the Spirits is both a symbolic family saga and the story of an unnamed Latin American country’s turbulent history.
https://quizlit.org/15-best-magical-realism-books#11-the-house-of-the-spirits-by-isabel-allende

15

Our Share of Night by Mariana Enriquez

Our Share of Night by Mariana Enriquez

Moving back and forth in time, from London in the swinging 1960s to the brutal years of Argentina’s military dictatorship and its turbulent aftermath, Our Share of Night is a novel like no other: a family story, a ghost story, a story of the occult and the supernatural, a book about the complexities of love and longing with queer subplots and themes.
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