Magical Realism

The Unbearable Lightness of Being is a novel by Czech author Milan Kundera. Written in 1982, it first appeared in print in its French translation in 1984. It was published in Czechoslovakia in 1986. The novel describes Czechoslovakia’s Prague Spring, the 1968 Russian invasion, and its resulting “Normalizace” (Normalization) Period, a time of increased repression and persecution of Czech and Slovak intellectuals. At once a philosophical meditation on duality, an inquiry into the nature of... Read The Unbearable Lightness of Being Summary

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The international bestseller The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry (2012) is the first novel by author Rachel Joyce and the first in a trilogy, followed by The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy (2014) and Maureen Fry and the Angel of the North (2022). The novel was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Prize and longlisted for the Man Booker Prize. Young also wrote the screenplay for the novel’s film adaptation, which stars Jim Broadbent as Harold... Read The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry Summary

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The Water Dancer is the debut novel of Ta-Nehisi Coates, a journalist known for his award-winning essay collections on race, his contributions to The Atlantic, and his work on Marvel’s The Black Panther comic book series. A New York Times bestseller and selection of the Oprah Winfrey Book Club, the novel centers on Hiram Walker, a fugitive slave who becomes an agent in the Underground, an organization devoted to the destruction of slavery in the... Read The Water Dancer Summary

The Whale Rider is a 1987 novel by New Zealand author Witi Ihimaera. A film adaptation was made in 2002 that would go on to win several awards. Throughout the novel, Ihimaera juxtaposes the migration of a herd of whales with the Maori tribe’s search for a male heir. The Whale Rider comprises four major sections, as well as a prologue, epilogue, and glossary. Each section of text is named after one of the seasons... Read The Whale Rider Summary

Written by Lauren St. John and published in 2006, The White Giraffe is the first book in the Legend of the Animal Healer series. It tells the story of orphan Martine Allen, who goes to live with her grandmother in Cape Town, South Africa after her parents’ tragic deaths. Her grandmother lives in a wildlife sanctuary called Sawubona. As Martine wrestles with losing her family and adapting to life on another continent, she learns the... Read The White Giraffe Summary

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Kōbō Abe’s 1962 novel The Woman in the Dunes (Sand Woman in Japanese) is an existential story of an amateur entomologist who goes on holiday to a seaside village. He winds up trapped in a sand pit with a woman engaged in a never-ending battle with the sand that threatens to overwhelm the village. It won the 1962 Yomiuri Prize for literature and the 1967 Prix du Meilleur Livre Étranger (France’s Prize for the Best... Read The Woman in the Dunes Summary

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Karen Tei Yamashita’s Through the Arc of the Rain Forest (1990) is a magical realist story from Coffee House Press. Narrated by a sentient floating sphere, the story primarily takes place in Brazil. Utilizing fantastical elements, the novel addresses issues of environmentalism, economic inequality, and faith.Plot SummaryA sentient ball narrates the novel in the first person and provides third person narration for the other characters. The story opens on the shores of Japan, where the... Read Through the Arc of the Rain Forest Summary

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Tracks, by Louise Erdrich, appeared as the third in a tetralogy of works beginning with Love Medicine, continuing with The Beet Queen, and ending with The Bingo Palace. All of these novels center on the history of the Chippewa or Ojibwe tribe located in and around the fictional town of Argus, North Dakota. In Tracks, Erdrich reaches back into the early twentieth century to retell the great losses the Chippewa tribe experienced. When disease and... Read Tracks Summary