Magical Realism Short Stories

A 20-something advertising executive receives a postcard from a friend and casually appropriates the image for an insurance company's advertisement. What he doesn't realise is that included in the pastoral scene is a mutant sheep with a star on its back, and in using this photo he has unwittingly captured the attention of a man in black who offers a menacing ultimatum: find the sheep or face dire consequences. Thus begins a surreal and elaborate quest that takes our hero from the urban haunts of Tokyo to the remote and snowy mountains of northern Japan.

Un placido lago di montagna ha un abitante misterioso, un essere solitario che conduce la sua esistenza in una caverna sottomarina. Da sotto la superficie dell'acqua, senza mai farsi vedere, osserva il mondo esterno, ne invidia i colori sgargianti, e guarda con curiosità e paura a quegli esseri così diversi da lui che animano le rive del lago. Può sentire le vibrazioni dei loro sentimenti, ma ha troppa paura per mostrarsi. Quando arriva sul pontile una ragazza speciale, dai capelli rossi e lo sguardo triste, tutto cambia. Le sue vibrazioni sono diverse da quelle di tutti gli altri.

From Mexico’s preeminent man of letters, "a Balzacian novel in nine masterly stories" (Vanity Fair) that explores the "uneven and painful meshing of two North American cultures" (Washington Post Book World). A New York Times Notable Book of the Year. A Los Angeles Times Best Book of the Year. Translated by Alfred Mac Adam.

In this masterful debut, an award-winning writer and first-rate storyteller explores the tenuous bonds of family - fathers and sons, husbands and wives - as they are tested by the sometimes brutal power of love. In each of the stories in this remarkable collection, David James Poissant delivers a moving portrayal of a relationship in turmoil. His strikingly true-to-life characters have reached a precipice, chased there by troubles of their own making. Some stand frightened, some ready to fight. Some seek atonement, others the atonement that is owed them.

In the tradition of narrativa de lo inusual (narrative of the unusual), The Only Sound Is the Wind combines the fantastic with the everyday, weaving elements of magical realism and surrealist twists to sharpen our view of human (and animal) connection. In the title story, the arrival of a mail-order clone complicates a burgeoning romance; a lonely librarian longing for her homeland strikes up an unusual relationship in the award-winning “The Moth”; when humans start giving birth to puppies and kittens in “This New Turn,” a realignment of the natural order ensues.

From USA Today best-selling author Casi McLean, five award-winning novelettes with supernatural twists grab you on minute one and hold you spellbound long after you listen.

“In villages where women bore most of the weight of a constricted life, witches flew by night on broomsticks,” said Italo Calvino of the way imagination bridges the gap between everyday existence and an idealized alternative. The 15 stories of Animal Wife are each about girls and women who cross this threshold seeking liberation from family responsibilities, from societal expectations, from their own minds.

Two dark pasts. One bond beyond their control. For a month, Coal has tried to stay away from the beautiful cadet who makes him feel things he shouldn’t, each day of separation spiraling him deeper into worsening nightmares. Already on edge, it takes Coal one split second to plunge into violence - and find himself in shackles once more.

Cuentos telúricos es una antología de cuentos casi fantásticos, o una colección de relatos mágicos por poco. En Cuentos telúricos caben los califas venerables, los hombres reptil, las niñas listas, los personajes atrapados dentro de personajes, las cartas llegadas del futuro, los círculos en los campos de cereal, los volcanes furibundos, las declaraciones de amor cuántico, los gatos, las abducciones, los calamares gigantes, las fábulas sin moraleja, las emanaciones invisibles surgidas del corazón de la tierra, los curas inmateriales, las mujeres del tiempo.

A S Byatt's fairy tales and fables are among the best-loved features of her fiction. Innumerable listeners have asked for the two marvellous fairy tales in Possession - 'The Glass Coffin' and 'Gode's Tale' of the Breton Naie des Trepasses - to be published separately. Here they take their place with three other stories with medieval and oriental settings.

A group of women contemplate violence after they’re sent into foreign territory to make husbands of the enemy. A support network of traumatized joggers meets to discuss the bodies they’ve found on their runs. And a town replaces its Confederate monument with a rotating cast of local residents. Slippery but muscular, sly but electric, this stunning debut collection moves from horror to magical realism to satire with total authority. In these stories, characters build and remake their sense of home, be it with one another or within themselves.

Take a supernatural tour with this collection of contemporary fantasy stories. Read with an open mind and you just might begin to wonder if all things could be possible. Are spirits hovering around us? Do ghosts watch over us? Are your pets communicating telepathically? Can card readers predict the future? Is it possible to see the little people? Do artifacts or fetishes have power? In this collection, the answer to all those questions is yes. But the real question is whether the stories are pure fiction or based on fact. The Legacy: Lydia is a psychic. When her grandson becomes the ...

In the quiet shadows of her family’s past, Vivienne discovers a power she never knew existed—and a darkness that may consume her. When a desperate attempt to heal her aunt Carolyn unleashes forbidden magick, Vivienne opens a door to an ancient and primal force, one that has lain dormant for centuries. The entity she summons is more than a demon—it's a living, breathing hunger that feeds on her fear, her soul, and her very essence. As the shadows grow, Vivienne finds herself caught between the faith that once anchored her and the magick that now threatens to tear her apart. With every ...

Master storyteller David Almond presents a beautiful collection of short fiction interwoven with pieces that illuminate the inspiration behind the stories. May Malone is said to have a monster in her house, but what Norman finds there may just be the angel he needs. Joe Quinn's house is noisy with poltergeists, or could it be Davie's raging causing the disturbance?

Getting stopped by a cop never felt so good. Timothy is timid and sweet as apple pie and guards his heart from hurt. Timothy wants to find an alpha before he gets too old, but he’s terrified of committing to the wrong man, so he takes a camping trip to clear his mind. Officer Peter Conrad enters Timothy’s life to offer a helping hand when Timothy gets stuck, and the two can’t help but notice their attraction for each other. Officer Alpha is a gay mpreg short story with two men who instantly fall for each other. They both want to be in love, make babies, and live the best lives they ...

Playful, frightening, shocking - these stories from a writer at the height of his power will make you think, or make you laugh. Sometimes they’ll make you want to look away, but they will always hold your gaze. These are stories set in London, in Byzantium, in the ghetto, in the Andes, and in a printer’s shop in Lagos. Characters include a murderer, a writer, a detective, a man in a cave, a man in a mirror, three little boys, a prison door, and the author himself. Each one of these 23 stories will make you wonder if what you see in the world can really be all there is....

A girl born in a small unnamed pueblo is blessed—or cursed—with the ability to produce valuable gems from her bodily fluids. A tired wife and mother escapes the confines of her oppressive life and body by shapeshifting into a cloud. A girl reckons with the death of her father and her changing familial dynamics while slowly, mysteriously losing her physical senses. Infused with keen insight and presented in startling prose, the stories in this dark, magnetic collection by newcomer Rebecca Hirsch Garcia invite the listener into an uncanny world out of step with reality.

Jimi Hendrix, Francis Bacon, the boxer Jack Johnson, Miles Davis, and a space-age Muhammad Ali find themselves in the otherworldly hands of Jeffery Renard Allen, reimagined and transformed to bring us news of America in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The two strands in this brilliant story collection—speculative history and tender, painful depictions of Black life in urban America—are joined by African notions of circular time in which past, present, and future exist all at once.

Seven Stories. Endless Possibilities. From magical realism to hard-hitting crime thrillers, from poetic flash fiction to urban fantasy, this genre-spanning collection showcases a masterful range of storytelling, packed with heart, action, and the unexpected. Inside Short Fiction, you’ll discover: • Oaf – A thrilling magical realism take on the classic “boy and his dog” story—with an unforgettable twist. • The Picnic – A palate-cleansing flash fiction piece, blending poetry and atmosphere in a haunting vignette. • A Peculiar Brew – A heartfelt tale of a dying man, a ...

It was a beautiful morning. Despite the ancient oracle's strange warning, Lydia set sail. She was experienced. She had done this plenty of times before. The oracle offered her a lucky talisman. Lydia took it. Now, it seems both their luck has run out. She is stuck on an island with a charm whose magic is spent. Will it ever return, or is she doomed to spend the rest of her life marooned in the middle of nowhere?