5 Magical Realism Books to Help You Escape (Without Totally Checking Out) https://ift.tt/JxIPrWA
The new year is here, and let’s be honest — it’s not exactly shimmering with hope. Sometimes the best you can do is rest and find a little room to breathe. This year, I’m finding that room in magical realism — a genre that transforms reality instead of just checking out of it. It’s a welcome break when life is overwhelming and chaotic, offering an invitation to see the world differently and making the impossible feel ordinary.
While magical realism is often associated with Latin American literature (hi Gabriel García Márquez), it also expands into unexpected spaces — from Hallmark-movie-type romances to adventure journalism and Japanese plays. Below are five magical realism books that offer their own unique escape and a possibility that the world can still surprise us.
I’m starting off this list with a novel that most deviates from the magical realism norm — a modern romance. This one in particular reads like a sexy Hallmark movie, and it’s incredibly, incredibly cozy. Ashley Poston’s The Seven Year Slip follows Clementine, an overworked book publicist who’s grieving the loss of her aunt. When she moves into her late aunt’s Upper East Side apartment, she unexpectedly meets a stranger in her kitchen — a young man from North Carolina and seven years in the past.
The magic of this book is more than just the time travel. It’s in the little details: a small New York City publisher with a cookbook niche, the comforting, homey vibe of her aunt’s apartment, lemon pies, and a gentle emotional arc of healing.
Escapism rating — “The Seven Year Slip” is a romance (and a little sexy), offering a comfy, low-stakes escape. Smooth writing and small twists along the way kept me completely engaged— 5/5.
Maggie O’Farrell’s Hamnet reimagines the life of Shakespeare’s family (though the playwright is never named), centering on the death of his son Hamnet and the creation of his iconic play Hamlet. Agnes, Shakespeare’s wife and the story’s protagonist, possesses a soft supernatural connection to nature and an ability to predict fates.
Despite her talents, Agnes knows she can’t control her life or the lives of those around her. She accepts this fact until she is shocked by her son’s death. Hamnet is filled with ethereal writing and a quiet magic that connects with the dead, looks into the future, and bargains with the weight of loss.
Escapism rating— “Hamnet” is beautiful to read and fully transported me to another time and emotional space — especially with the historical details and the intimate magic of Agnes’ world —4.5/5.
Found Audio by N.J. Campbell is not a cozy read. It is a tense mystery, pulling you in from the start, blending adventure journalism with a surreal exploration of reality and existence. The story revolves around an enigmatic audio recording sent to an academic — featuring an unnamed journalist and his vivid, hazy adventures.
Although the book itself is quite short, the story spans decades as the main character searches through his memories for a mythical place called the “City of Dreams” — taking us everywhere from the Louisiana Bayou to a chess tournament in Istanbul. Found Audio doesn’t offer easy answers. It uses dream logic and almost hypnotic storytelling to dive into the question, “Are you the dreamer, or are you the dream?”
Escapism rating — Found Audio is a quick read and certainly detached from reality at times, but its heady themes and fragmented storytelling require a little more focus than other books in this list— 3/5.
Olga Grushin’s Forty Rooms is a journey through the life of a nameless woman, framed by the forty rooms she inhabits over the course of her lifetime — beginning in her childhood Moscow apartment and following her through adolescence, love, motherhood, and old age as an American housewife.
Forty Rooms uses Greek mythology and Russian poetry to delve into themes similar to Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own: squandered genius, sacrificed ambition, and abandoned expectations.
Escapism rating —While surreal and beautifully written, its themes of ambition, motherhood, and identity are incredibly relevant to current gender issues, so it’s not the most effortless escape— 3.5/5.
Toshikazu Kawaguchi is possibly the king of “healing fiction.” His books are famous for being comfy and whimsical, and his play-turned-novel, Before the Coffee Gets Cold, is no exception. The first of a five-novel series, this book is set in a Tokyo cafe where customers can travel back in time.
What makes this book so healing is how it explores the quiet, life-changing moments characters experience when given the chance to revisit the past. The magic in this book is simple and reflective, working at a gentle pace, in the warm, intimate setting of the cafe, and the ever-present cups of coffee that must be finished before they cool.
Escapism rating —The stories in “Before the Coffee Gets Cold” are short and episodic, making them easy to pick up and get lost in for a while when you have a moment to spare— 5/5.
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