Popular North American Magical Realism Books

Find magical realism books written by authors from North America for the next part of the Read Around The World Challenge. (55)

21.

Like Water For Chocolate by Laura Esquivel EN

Rating: 4 (19 votes)
Description:
The Number One Bestseller In Mexico And America For Almost Two Years, And Subsequently A Bestseller Around The World, Like Water For Chocolate Is A Romantic, Poignant Tale, Touched With Moments Of Magic, Graphic Earthiness, Bittersweet Wit - And Recipes.A Sumptuous Feast Of A Novel, It Relates The Bizarre History Of The All-Female De La Garza Family. Tita, The Youngest Daughter Of The House, Has Been Forbidden To Marry, Condemned By Mexican Tradition To Look After Her Mother Until She Dies. But Tita Falls In Love With Pedro, And He Is Seduced By The Magical Food She Cooks. In Desperation Pedro... continue

22.

Men of Maize by Miguel Ángel Asturias EN

Rating: 5 (1 vote)
Description:
A novel whose time has come: the Nobel Prize–winning author of Mr. President’s visionary epic of ecological devastation, capitalist exploitation, and Indigenous wisdom, now available again for its 75th anniversary with a new introduction and with a foreword by Pulitzer Prize winner Héctor Tobar A Penguin Classic Deep in the mountain forests of Guatemala, a community of Indigenous Mayans—the "men of maize"—serves as stewards to sacred corn crops. When profiteering outsiders encroach on their territory and threaten to abuse the fertile land, they enter a bloody struggle to protect their way of l... continue

23.

Monkey Beach by Eden Robinson EN

0 Ratings
Description:
“Monkey Beach creates a vivid contemporary landscape that draws the reader deep into a traditional world, a hidden universe of premonition, pain and power.” --Thomas King Tragedy strikes a Native community when the Hill family’s handsome seventeen-year-old son, Jimmy, mysteriously vanishes at sea. Left behind to cope during the search-and-rescue effort is his sister, Lisamarie, a wayward teenager with a dark secret. She sets off alone in search of Jimmy through the Douglas Channel and heads for Monkey Beach—a shore famed for its sasquatch sightings. Infused by turns with darkness and humour, M... continue

24.

Mr. President by Miguel Ángel Asturias EN

Rating: 5 (1 vote)
Description:
“[A] brilliant translation . . . Electrifying vividness animates every page.” ―Claire Messud, Harper’s Magazine “A formidable new English translation.” ―The New Yorker “[A] masterful translation.” ―The Washington Post Nobel Prize–winning Guatemalan author Miguel Ángel Asturias’s masterpiece—the original Latin American dictator novel and pioneering work of magical realism—in its first new English translation in more than half a century, featuring a foreword by Nobel laureate Mario Vargas Llosa Also available from Penguin Classics: Miguel Ángel Asturias’s visionary epic of ecological devastation... continue

25.

Nightbitch : A Novel by Rachel Yoder EN

Rating: 3 (1 vote)
Description:
In this blazingly smart and voracious debut novel, an artist turned stay-at-home mom becomes convinced she's turning into a dog. • "A must-read for anyone who can’t get enough of the ever-blurring line between the psychological and supernatural that Yellowjackets exemplifies." —Vulture One day, the mother was a mother, but then one night, she was quite suddenly something else... An ambitious mother puts her art career on hold to stay at home with her newborn son, but the experience does not match her imagination. Two years later, she steps into the bathroom for a break from her toddler's deman... continue

26.

Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson EN

Rating: 4 (2 votes)
Description:
A New York Times Bestseller - A Read with Jenna Today Show Book Club Pick! Named a Best Book of the Year by The New York Times Book Review, The Washington Post, People, Entertainment Weekly, USA Today, TIME, The A.V. Club, Buzzfeed, and PopSugar "I can't believe how good this book is.... It's wholly original. It's also perfect.... Wilson writes with such a light touch.... The brilliance of the novel [is] that it distracts you with these weirdo characters and mesmerizing and funny sentences and then hits you in a way you didn't see coming. You're laughing so hard you don't even realize that you... continue

27.

Papi : A Novel by Rita Indiana Hernández EN

Rating: 3 (1 vote)
Description:
Chapter One -- Chapter Two -- Chapter Three -- Chapter Four -- Chapter Five -- Chapter Six -- Chapter Seven -- Chapter Eight -- Chapter Nine -- Chapter Ten -- Chapter Eleven -- Chapter Twelve

28.

Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl by Andrea Lawlor EN

0 Ratings
Description:
"In these irreverent pages, a shapeshifter gets a crash course in gender and sexuality by inhabiting both sides of the binary and arriving precisely somewhere in the middle." —O, The Oprah Magazine “HOT” (Maggie Nelson) • “TIGHT” (Eileen Myles) • “DEEP” (Michelle Tea) It's 1993 and Paul Polydoris tends bar at the only gay club in a university town thrumming with politics and partying. He studies queer theory, has a dyke best friend, makes zines, and is a flaneur with a rich dating life. But Paul's also got a secret: he's a shapeshifter. Oscillating wildly from Riot Grrrl to leather cub, Paul t... continue

29.

Pedro Páramo by Juan Rulfo EN

Rating: 4 (23 votes)
Description:
Deserted villages of rural Mexico, where images and memories of the past linger like unquiet ghosts, haunted the imaginations of the author. In one such village of the mind, Comala, he set his classic novel Pedro Páramo, a dream-like tale that intertwines a man's quest to find his lost father and reclaim his patrimony with the father's obsessive love for a woman who will not be possessed, Susana San Juan.

30.

Pig's Foot by Carlos Acosta EN

Rating: 3 (1 vote)
Country: North America / Cuba flag Cuba
Description:
______________________ 'Vivid, fast-moving and often dazzling ... The pace leaves you breathless' - Kate Saunders, The Times 'Elegant and seductive' - Guardian 'Spellbinding ... Acosta does for prose what he has done for the ballet, bringing to it a muscular sexiness and a rural saltiness' - Independent on Sunday ______________________ A dazzling novel of revolution, family secrets, love and identity across four generations Oscar Mandinga, great-grandchild of the founders of a small hamlet deep in the Cuban hinterland, is a sardonic teller of tales – some taller than others. But one day Oscar ... continue