Magical Realism

Sharks in the Time of Saviours, Kawai Strong Washburn

In 1994 in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, seven-year-old Nainoa Flores is saved from drowning by a shiver of sharks. His family, struggling to make ends meet amidst the collapse of the sugar cane industry, hails his rescue as a sign of favour from ancient Hawaiian gods. Goodreads Reviews Back to GoodReads

Read More

Pani Mar Raha Hai, Amna Mufti

With her latest novel on water crisis, “Paani Mar Raha Hai”, Mufti has not only contributed to the bourgeoning field of Literary Environmental Studies, but has also proven that creative writers are not always oblivious to their surroundings. –Daily Times, Pakistan Goodreads Reviews Back to GoodReads

Read More

Split Tooth, Tanya Taqaq

This book is being read and discussed at the Cambridge Ecofiction Bookclub in January 2020. According to Goodreads, Veering back and forth between the grittiest features of a small arctic town, the electrifying proximity of the world of animals, and ravishing world of myth, Tanya Tagaq explores a world where […]

Read More

Lion City, Ng Yi-Sheng

These are the exquisitely strange tales of Lion City, the first collection of short fiction by award-winning poet and playwright Ng Yi-Sheng. Infused with myth, magical realism and contemporary sci-fi, each of these tales invites the reader to see this city-state in a new and darkly fabulous light. Goodreads Reviews […]

Read More

Awakening Worlds, J.C. Thomas

Awakening Worlds is a coming of age novel with contemporary Gothic themes and elements of magical realism, a must-read for anyone who loves otherworldly fantasy.  When Roselyn, daughter of the universe, learns humanity’s growing disregard for Earth’s health is putting her mother’s life in danger, she volunteers to nurture a […]

Read More

A.S. King’s Me and Marvin Gardens, Review by Kimberly Christensen

Me and Marvin Gardens by A.S. King Middle Grade Fiction Published by Scholastic Trades Review by Kimberly Christensen Everything around twelve-year-old Obe Devlin is changing. New subdivisions keep springing up behind his house on the acres of land that once belonged to the Devlin family. Obe’s former best friend, Tommy, […]

Read More

Latitudes of Longing, Shubhangi Swarup

A recent take on the state of writing argues that novelists have been complicit in maintaining silence around global warming and climate change…They have obsessed over everyday life, but overlooked larger units of time and place. In the aftermath of such a critique of the genre of the novel, Shubhangi […]

Read More

She Would Be King, Wayétu Moore

Animals have inspired some of the most memorable moments in African storytelling. In 17th century Ethiopia, Galawdewos repeatedly relies on the appearance or the death of animals to portray Walatta Petros’ miraculous saintly power. When animals are incorporated in ritual process, the visual effect is powerful. The image of Ozidi […]

Read More

Cave Walker, Donelle Dreese

My hope is that Cave Walker fits into contemporary eco-fiction in the sense that nature occupies a central space in the novel almost at all times. The Maine woods through which Gillian hikes to reach the holy cave is a character. Each cave is a distinct character. Even when Gillian […]

Read More

Beneath the Mother Tree, D.M. Cameron

A spine-chilling mystery and contemporary love story, Beneath the Mother Tree plays out in a unique and wild Australian setting, interweaving Indigenous history and Irish mythology…On a small island, something sinister is at play. Resident alcoholic Grappa believes it’s the Far Dorocha, dark servant of the Faery queen, whose seductive […]

Read More

The Whale Caller, Zakes Mda

As Zakes Mda’s fifth novel opens, the seaside village of Hermanus is overrun with whale-watchers–foreign tourists determined to see whales in their natural habitat. But when the tourists have gone home, the whale caller lingers at the shoreline, wooing a whale he has named Sharisha with cries from a kelp […]

Read More

Flames, Robbie Arnott

Perspective is handled deftly by the author. As Arnott moves from fisherman Karl and his dome-headed seal, to the gin-swilling private detective, to the police sergeant being ruthlessly divorced by his wife, we are confronted by characters that are in equal measure, tough and beautiful. And importantly, Jack McAllister becomes […]

Read More

The Story Collector, Evie Gaughan

See our world eco-fiction spotlight on this title at Dragonfly. The Story Collector treads the intriguing line between the everyday and the otherworldly, the seen and the unseen. With a taste for the magical in everyday life, Evie Gaughan’s latest novel is full of ordinary characters with extraordinary tales to […]

Read More

Beasts of Extraordinary Circumstances, Ruth Emmie Lang

There was a strange, enchanted boy. In Beasts of Extraordinary Circumstance, a wistful fantasy by Columbus author Ruth Emmie Lang, Weylyn Grey touches the life of many, human and beast, in his odyssey. –Ohio.com Orphaned, raised by wolves, and the proud owner of a horned pig named Merlin, Weylyn Grey […]

Read More

Swansong, Kerry Andrew

Swansong, her [Kerry’s] debut novel, is set in the Scottish Highlands, where a London student flees after a disastrous night out…I had to spook myself out sometimes – I would sit in the dark and try to put myself into Polly’s position. And then I read things like Evie Wyld’s […]

Read More