Best of
Magical-Realism

2013

The Golem and the Jinni


Helene Wecker - 2013
    Chava is unmoored and adrift as the ship arrives in New York harbor in 1899. Ahmad is a jinni, a being of fire born in the ancient Syrian desert, trapped in an old copper flask, and released in New York City, though still not entirely free. Ahmad and Chava become unlikely friends and soul mates with a mystical connection. Marvelous and compulsively readable, Helene Wecker's debut novel The Golem and the Jinni weaves strands of Yiddish and Middle Eastern literature, historical fiction and magical fable, into a wondrously inventive and unforgettable tale.

The Silence of Bonaventure Arrow


Rita Leganski - 2013
    No one knows Bonaventure's silence is filled with resonance - a miraculous gift of rarified hearing that encompasses the Universe of Every Single Sound. Growing up in the big house on Christopher Street in Bayou Cymbaline, Bonaventure can hear flowers grow, a thousand shades of blue, and the miniature tempests that rage inside raindrops. He can also hear the gentle voice of his father, William Arrow, shot dead before Bonaventure was born by a mysterious stranger known only as the Wanderer.Bonaventure's remarkable gift of listening promises salvation to the souls who love him: his beautiful young mother, Dancy, haunted by the death of her husband; his Grand-mere Letice, plagued by grief and long-buried guilt she locks away in a chapel; and his father, William, whose roaming spirit must fix the wreckage of the past. With the help of Trinidad Prefontaine, a Creole housekeeper endowed with her own special gifts, Bonaventure will find the key to long-buried mysteries and soothe a chorus of family secrets clamoring to be healed.

Three Souls


Janie Chang - 2013
    But only in death could I confirm this ... So begins the haunting and captivating tale, set in 1935 China, of the ghost of a young woman named Leiyin, who watches her own funeral from above and wonders why she is being denied entry to the afterlife. Beside her are three souls—stern and scholarly yang; impulsive, romantic yin; and wise, shining hun—who will guide her toward understanding. She must, they tell her, make amends.As Leiyin delves back in time with the three souls to review her life, she sees the spoiled and privileged teenager she once was, a girl who is concerned with her own desires while China is fractured by civil war and social upheaval. At a party, she meets Hanchin, a captivating left-wing poet and translator, and instantly falls in love with him.When Leiyin defies her father to pursue Hanchin, she learns the harsh truth—that she is powerless over her fate. Her punishment for disobedience leads to exile, an unwanted marriage, a pregnancy, and, ultimately, her death. And when she discovers what she must do to be released from limbo into the afterlife, Leiyin realizes that the time for making amends is shorter than she thought.Suffused with history and literature, Three Souls is an epic tale of revenge and betrayal, forbidden love, and the price we are willing to pay for freedom.

A Tale for the Time Being


Ruth Ozeki - 2013
    A diary is Nao’s only solace—and will touch lives in a ways she can scarcely imagine.Across the Pacific, we meet Ruth, a novelist living on a remote island who discovers a collection of artifacts washed ashore in a Hello Kitty lunchbox—possibly debris from the devastating 2011 tsunami. As the mystery of its contents unfolds, Ruth is pulled into the past, into Nao’s drama and her unknown fate, and forward into her own future. Full of Ozeki’s signature humour and deeply engaged with the relationship between writer and reader, past and present, fact and fiction, quantum physics, history, and myth, A Tale for the Time Being is a brilliantly inventive, beguiling story of our shared humanity and the search for home.

The Museum of Literary Souls


John Connolly - 2013
    Berger has spent thirty-four years keeping his life as empty as possible. His job title as a closed accounts registrar doesn’t spark much interest, and his cautious flirtation with a woman at his company was cut short upon her engagement to another man. This doesn’t bother him, however, as he much prefers the company of books to that of people. When a series of fortuitous events leads to an early retirement in the English countryside, Mr. Berger is content to spend the remainder of his years nestled comfortably between the pages of a book. But fate has other plans.His serene life turns strange when he witnesses a tragedy chillingly reminiscent of Anna Karenina as a woman flings herself before a train. When he rushes to the scene, she has vanished, leaving no body on the tracks. Berger’s investigation into this event leads him to Caxton Private Lending Library & Book Depository, where the line between fiction and reality becomes blurred beyond comprehension.

The Ocean at the End of the Lane


Neil Gaiman - 2013
    A middle-aged man returns to his childhood home to attend a funeral. Although the house he lived in is long gone, he is drawn to the farm at the end of the road, where, when he was seven, he encountered a most remarkable girl, Lettie Hempstock, and her mother and grandmother. He hasn't thought of Lettie in decades, and yet as he sits by the pond (a pond that she'd claimed was an ocean) behind the ramshackle old farmhouse, the unremembered past comes flooding back. And it is a past too strange, too frightening, too dangerous to have happened to anyone, let alone a small boy.Forty years earlier, a man committed suicide in a stolen car at this farm at the end of the road. Like a fuse on a firework, his death lit a touchpaper and resonated in unimaginable ways. The darkness was unleashed, something scary and thoroughly incomprehensible to a little boy. And Lettie—magical, comforting, wise beyond her years—promised to protect him, no matter what.A groundbreaking work from a master, The Ocean at the End of the Lane is told with a rare understanding of all that makes us human, and shows the power of stories to reveal and shelter us from the darkness inside and out. It is a stirring, terrifying, and elegiac fable as delicate as a butterfly's wing and as menacing as a knife in the dark.

The Diary of Janie Ray - Books 1-5 Box Set


Lila Segal - 2013
    When I first got this diary from my mom, I didn't think I'd have all that much to write about - except for the usual stuff about my little brother RJ (who ALWAYS messes up my things, and never gets in trouble!) and my best friend Sheila. But then really strange things started happening. Like this medallion I found when I was seven turned out to have an inscription on it - in a secret language I made up with Sheila just THIS YEAR! Let's just say my life isn't so boring anymore. And that's an understatement. Join me as I explore the hidden mysteries of the medallion, while figuring out how to deal with Marcia the Snob, my little brother RJ, and even my mom - who always looks nice and doesn't understand how hard things can be when you're eleven!!! Books 1-5 of The Diary of Janie RayBook 1: The Impossible Medallion (a FREE introductory preview) Book 2: The Day My Mom Got Grounded! Book 3: A Star is Born Book 4: A Letter to My Fifth Grade Self Book 5: Baking with Frenemies! The Impossible Medallion and The Day My Mom Got Grounded: Eleven year old Janie Ray just got a new diary from her mom. At first, she writes all about the private jokes she shares with her best friend Sheila, and the grief she gets from her little brother RJ. But then, one morning, she realizes that the mysterious inscription on the old medallion she found when she was seven is written in her secret language! Join Janie as she explores the hidden mysteries of the medallion, while figuring out how to deal with Marcia the Snob, RJ, and even her mother - who always looks nice and doesn't understand how hard things can be when you're eleven. A Star is Born: Kellie Allen is the most unpopular girl in Janie's fifth grade class. She doesn't have any friends, and she brings sardine sandwiches for lunch! Janie can't believe her rotten luck when she gets stuck with Kellie as her science project partner. But she soon realizes that Kellie isn't as weird as she seems. And she has the best singing voice Janie has ever heard! How can Janie get the other kids to see Kellie for who she really is? And will she really be able to use the medallion to help save Kellie from the class bullies? A Letter to my Fifth Grade Self: Things are going pretty well for Janie. Between hanging out with Sheila, Kellie and Alexis and trying to get her homework done, she barely has time to think about the medallion. And even MTS seems to be minding her own business. But all that changes one day, when Janie gets a mysterious note from the future. Baking with Frenemies!: Travelling through time is strange enough, but now something even stranger has happened - MTS, otherwise known as Marcia the Snob, wants to be Janie's friend! Or does she? With the fifth grade baking contest coming up, and Kellie's Starbright Showdown just around the corner, Janie barely has time to write in her diary. And as if all that weren't enough, Janie and Sheila realize it's time to find Grandpa Charlie's key and unlock the mysteries it seeks to protect. Join Janie as she tries to figure out how to deal with Marcia, while discovering what it truly means to be Bearer of the Medallion.

Three Scenarios In Which Hana Sasaki Grows A Tail


Kelly Luce - 2013
    Hana Sasaki will introduce you to many things—among them, an oracular toaster, a woman who grows a tail, and an extraordinary sex-change operation. Set in Japan, these stories tip into the fantastical, plumb the power of memory, and measure the human capacity to love.

Kabu Kabu


Nnedi Okorafor - 2013
    This debut short story collection by award-winning author Nnedi Okorafor includes notable previously-published short work, a new novella co-written with New York Times bestselling author Alan Dean Foster, and a brief foreword by Whoopi Goldberg.

A Tangle of Knots


Lisa Graff - 2013
    In a slightly magical world where everyone has a Talent, eleven-year-old Cady is an orphan with a phenomenal Talent for cake baking. But little does she know that fate has set her on a journey from the moment she was born. And her destiny leads her to a mysterious address that houses a lost luggage emporium, an old recipe, a family of children searching for their own Talents, and a Talent Thief who will alter her life forever. However, these encounters hold the key to Cady's past and how she became an orphan. If she's lucky, fate may reunite her with her long-lost parent. Lisa Graff adds a pinch of magic to a sharply crafted plot to create a novel that will have readers wondering about fate and the way we're all connected.

The Girl with the Magic Hands


Nnedi Okorafor - 2013
    But things were about to change for this girl. Oh yes. When things are meant to be, they will. The world always turns and the candle always burns. And Chidera was about to learn that one can get the very things one yearns." From the Introduction of The Girl with the Magic Hands Worldreader proudly presents this ebook in a new series of children's and young adult books from Sub-Saharan Africa. Worldreader is a non-profit organization committed to delivering digital books to children and families in the developing world using e-book technology. By purchasing this book you directly contribute to this effort by helping fund school literacy programs, and promote the writing and publication of great books from local authors everywhere.

The True Blue Scouts of Sugar Man Swamp


Kathi Appelt - 2013
    The opportunity to serve the Sugar Man—the massive creature who delights in delicious sugar cane and magnanimously rules over the swamp—is an honor, and also a big responsibility, since the rest of the swamp critters rely heavily on the intel of these hardworking Scouts.Twelve-year-old Chap Brayburn is not a member of any such organization. But he loves the swamp something fierce, and he’ll do anything to help protect it.And help is surely needed, because world-class alligator wrestler Jaeger Stitch wants to turn Sugar Man swamp into an Alligator World Wrestling Arena and Theme Park, and the troubles don’t end there. There is also a gang of wild feral hogs on the march, headed straight toward them all.The Scouts are ready. All they have to do is wake up the Sugar Man. Problem is, no one’s been able to wake that fellow up in a decade or four…

Forged in Grace


Jordan E. Rosenfeld - 2013
    The flames changed her: badly scarred in body and mind, Grace developed an ability to feel other people’s pain. Unable to bear human touch, she has made a small life for herself in Northern California, living with her hoarder mother, tending wounded animals, and falling a little in love with her former doctor. Her safe world explodes when the magnetic Marly Kennet reappears in town; Grace falls right back into the dynamic of their complicated friendship. Marly is the holder of many secrets, including one that has haunted Grace for over a decade: what really happened the night of the fire?When Marly exhorts Grace to join her in Las Vegas, to make up for the years they have been lost to each other, Grace takes a leap of faith and goes. Although Marly is not entirely honest about her intentions, neither woman anticipates that enlarging Grace’s world will magnify her ability to sense the suffering of others—or that she will begin to heal wounds by swallowing her own pain and laying her hands on the afflicted.This gift soon turns darker when the truth of Marly’s life—and the real reason she ended her friendship with Grace—pushes the boundaries of loyalty and exposes both women to danger.

A Celtic Tapestry


Miranda Stork - 2013
    But eight Celtic festivals link these seasons together, bringing with them romance, lust, danger, and even magic. From a city under threat from night-time creatures at Ostara, to a selkie caught by the light of the Lughnasadh moon, to a writer caught in the flames of a fiery goddess at Imbolc.Eight authors have come together to give their own twist on these festivals, weaving each story with a blend of myth, magic, and contemporary telling…to create A Celtic Tapestry.

House of Purple Cedar


Tim Tingle - 2013
    It is time we spoke of Skullyville." Thus begins Rose Goode's story of her growing up in Indian Territory in pre-statehood Oklahoma. Skullyville, a once-thriving Choctaw community, was destroyed by land-grabbers, culminating in the arson on New Year's Eve, 1896, of New Hope Academy for Girls. Twenty Choctaw girls died, but Rose escaped. She is blessed by the presence of her grandmother Pokoni and her grandfather Amafo, both respected elders who understand the old ways. Soon after the fire, the white sheriff beats Amafo in front of the town's people, humiliating him. Instead of asking the Choctaw community to avenge the beating, her grandfather decides to follow the path of forgiveness. And so unwinds this tale of mystery, Indian-style magical realism, and deep wisdom. It's a world where backwoods spiritualism and Bible-thumping Christianity mix with bad guys; a one-legged woman shop-keeper, her oaf of a husband, herbal potions, and shape-shifting panthers rendering justice. Tim Tingle—a scholar of his nation's language, culture, and spirituality—tells Rose's story of good and evil with understanding and even laugh-out-loud Choctaw humor.

The Forsaken


R.J. Craddock - 2013
    Gwenevere flees into the forest in the dead of winter and stumbles into the human world. Unable to speak their language, but capable of reading their thoughts, Gwen acclimates quickly. Meanwhile she discovers that her native tongue is magical, giving her the power to control the world around her. Seeking the answers to her identity and her forgotten past, orphaned Gwen runs off in search of her own kind. Her dark gifts bring to light horrible truths, the discovery of which forces Gwen to make a fatal decision. The only thing that is certain, her life is about to take a drastic turn - there is no going back from murder.

Pen Pal


Francesca Forrest - 2013
    Kaya is a political activist in a terrifying prison. They are pen pals. Em's wistful message in a bottle finds its way to Kaya, imprisoned above the molten lava of the Ruby Lake. Both are living precarious lives, at the mercy of societal, natural, and perhaps supernatural forces beyond their control. Kaya's letters inspire Em, and Em's comfort Kaya-but soon this correspondence becomes more than personal. Individual lives, communities, and even the fate of an entire nation will be changed by this exchange of letters. Pen Pal is a story of friendship and bravery across age, distance, and culture, at the intersection of the natural and supernatural world.

flesh to bone


Ire'ne Lara Silva - 2013
    The nine stories write and rewrite "myth" from a woman's of view, as they tell stories of women and children whose lives are shaped by the social, political, ecological, and economic disruption and violence of the borderlands.A poet and fiction writer, ire'ne lara silva has been an active participant in the literary culture of Austin, Texas, for many years. Her first collection of poetry, furia, was published by Mouthfeel Press in 2010. She is the recipient of the Gloria Anzaldúa Milagro Award and a 2010 Cantomundo Inaugural Fellowship.

Sister-Sister


Rachel Zadok - 2013
    I see myself, Thuli, strange and disconnected and the wrong way round, like I’m stuck in a mirror. We walk across the patch of veld to Saviour’s Pit Stop, our arms crooked at the elbows and linked together. The sky is silver-blue and the propeller on the Legend winks as it turns slow in the breeze, fanning our cheeks. The colour of her dreaming is sharp, as if our lives then were so much brighter… In childhood Thuli and Sindi are inseparable, pinkie-linked by a magic no one else can understand. Then a strange man comes knocking, bringing news from a hometown they didn’t know existed. His arrival sets into motion events that will lead them into the darkest places, on a search for salvation where the all-too-familiar and the extraordinary merge, blurring the boundaries between dream and reality. “An extraordinary blend of parable, passion and poetry; it's not often a novel of such originality comes around.” – Christopher Hope

Magic in Memphis


Hunter S. Jones - 2013
    This Yule love story is no longer available.

Brimstone and Marmalade


Aaron Corwin - 2013
    Instead, she got a demon. Sometimes growing up means learning that what you think you want is not always what you need.At the publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management software (DRM) applied.

Electricity and Other Dreams


Micah Dean Hicks - 2013
    In these magical yet down-to-earth stories we meet an old man made out of cans, an electrician who makes light simply by touching a bulb, a weatherman who arranges his own weather, a plumber who also gets rid of ghosts. Fortune cookie fortunes actually come true, alligators work in a factory, and Japanese warlords battle on a jet plane. And then there's the killer crawfish. Every story in this fantastic collection is gorgeously gritty and lots of fun. Micah Dean Hicks is a true original. ELIZABETH STUCKEY-FRENCH O. Henry Award-winner and author of The Revenge of the Radioactive Lady

Tales of Toyland


Enid Blyton - 2013
    ‘I don’t want to stay in this nursery,’ sobbed the fairy doll. Jolly the sailor doll loves to sing his jolly sailor songs, but the mean old toys in the nursery tell him to be quiet. When Tiptoe the fairy doll arrives, Jolly is the only toy to be kind to her. Jolly and Tiptoe have had enough – they are off on the express train to Toyland! Join Jolly and Tiptoe on their adventures in wonderful Toyland. They will meet all sorts of extraordinary characters like the Wobbly Mr To-and-Fro and the funny Clockwork Clown! Enid Blyton is arguably the most famous children’s author of all time, thanks to series such as The Wishing-Chair, The Faraway Tree­, The Mysteries, The Famous Five and The Secret Seven. Her Tales from Toyland are a perfect example of the kind of magical adventures she has created for her millions of readers over the years.

Is That You, John Wayne?


Scott Garson - 2013
    A paranoid eccentric fixates on the idea that his apartment's furnishings are being rearranged in his absence, and tries hard to communicate this in the shop where he has a post-office box and where he is, by the manager, loathed. An aging Midwesterner invests in the possibility that the charismatic accompanist who worked with his music teacher years earlier, when he was a child, was in fact a country-western star who'd briefly gone missing after the war. IS THAT YOU, JOHN WAYNE?--Scott Garson's debut full-length collection of short fictions--establishes, in its tightest sentence spaces and sweeping narrative scenes, an interface of identity and expression and compulsion and delusion that is nothing short of singular."The way I feel about this book is the way one of Scott Garson's original, unsparing characters feels about the moon: 'She thought it was beautiful but thought this was beside the point. She thought it was real. It was wild and actual. It was pulling her out to sea.' These wild, actual stories, whether spun over years and pages or distilled into a few words, conjure humor, loss, and moments of startling wisdom. They are beautiful, but also real, and Garson's command of the strangeness in even everyday moments pulls us outside of our everyday lives."--Caitlin Horrocks"This was exactly the book I needed to read right now. I'm not sure how Scott Garson manages the precision of his narratives, the way he uncovers the exact moment, however inconsequential it may seem at first, when the world takes on a new shape for his characters. That he can temper this with a strange, sneaky humor makes IS THAT YOU, JOHN WAYNE? a very special collection."--Kevin Wilson

Tales from Rugosa Coven


Sarah Avery - 2013
    The personal injury attorney who chose kitchen-witchery over his family's five-generation lineage of old school ceremonial magic would like to miss his dead parents, only now that they're dead they won't leave him alone. The professional fortuneteller stands out at forty paces, with her profusion of silver amulets glittering over her Goth wardrobe, but nobody has guessed her secret sorrow, especially not the covenmates who see her as their wacky comic relief. And the resident skeptic, a reluctant Pagan if ever there was one, will have to eat her words if her coven sister's new boyfriend really does turn out to be from Atlantis. The Jersey Shore's half-hidden community of Witches, Druids, and latter-day Vikings must circle together against all challenges. It's a good thing they're as resilient as the wild rugosa roses that hold together the dunes. Praise for The Rugosa Coven Stories I absolutely love Tales from Rugosa Coven! It reminds me of the best occult fiction, but with better plots and a New Jersey I recognize. I can't wait for more! -Nina Harper, author of Succubus in the City When I read Closing Arguments a few months ago, I was left wanting more. With Sarah Avery's follow-up to that novella, Atlantis Cranks Need Not Apply, I was left salivating. -Jeremy Bredeson, Facing North Reviews

Mermaids: Faerie Magazine #25, Winter 2013


Kim Cross - 2013
    Mami Wata The Sacred Water Spirit. Tim Gunn Talks About Mermaid Fashion. Hanna Fraser On Life Underwater. Stephen G. Bloom On Pearls, The Tears Of Mermaids.

The Exhibit


Lauren Eggert-Crowe - 2013
    Part lucid dreaming instruction manual, part breakup in a haunted museum.

Burning Girls


Veronica Schanoes - 2013
    In addition to the natural danger of destruction by Cossacks, she must deal with a demon plaguing her family.

La Santisima


T. Frohock - 2013
    He promises Sebastian that La Santa Muerte will be his patron saint, that she will protect him and grant his wishes.Death comes for us all. Keep her as your friend.Sebastian is disappointed as prayer after prayer is rejected by the saint, and he loses faith. One night his sister Lucía joins him, and La Santa Muerte answers their prayer to bring their brother home …

Set in Stone


Aurrora St. James - 2013
     Once falsely accused of his lover's murder, Gregore knows when he is going to die, and he has spent decades searching for a way to break the curse that hardens his body to stone. When a painful twist of fate lands the counter-curse in his hands then snatches it away just days before he turns to stone forever, Gregore's desperation reaches new found heights. He'll do anything to live-even if it means kidnapping the one woman who could steal his heart. Although she comes from a long lineage of powerful women, Detective Tara O'Reilly is wonderfully content with her normal life. The remnants of her Gypsy heritage and magic are firmly locked away where they can't hurt anyone. However, when a creature straight out of legend kidnaps her and asks for her help, she'll have to choose between walking away from a man who stirs her soul and embracing a magic that could kill everyone she loves. An exciting and dark new paranormal romance novel, Set in Stone explores the themes of redemption and righting past wrongs, all while showing readers that true love can conquer all. Blending romance with a bit of fantasy, this is a perfect story for anyone who wants a taste of magic and the unknown in their romance novels.

Haroun and Luka


Salman Rushdie - 2013
    That means no more laughter in the city of Alifbay and now the place stinks of sadness. So it's up to me to put things right. If the water genie Iff can take me on the Hoopoe bird Butt all the way to Gup City then maybe, just maybe, I'll be able to persuade the Grand Comptroller to give my father his Story Water supply back. Trouble is, that is strictly forbidden, one hundred percent banned, no way Jose territory...Luka: What do sea monsters eat?The Old Man of the River of Time: Fish and Ships. Why was six afraid of seven?Luka: Because seven eight nine.Luckily, my father is the Riddle King and taught me everything I know. But the stakes are high in this riddle battle, couldn't be higher in fact! To save my father from Un-Life, I've got to beat the Old Man and steal the Fire of Life that burns at the top of the Mountain of Knowledge. Only problem is that nobody in the entire recorded history of the World of Magic has ever successfully stolen the Fire of Life...Includes exclusive material: In the Backstory you can read an interview with the author and solve some fiendish riddles!Vintage Children's Classics is a twenty-first century classics list aimed at 8-12 year olds and the adults in their lives. Discover timeless favourites from The Jungle Book and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland to modern classics such as The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.

The Wedding Bees: A Novel of Honey, Love, and Manners


Sarah-Kate Lynch - 2013
    . . .Every spring Sugar Wallace coaxes her sleepy honeybee queen—presently the sixth in a long line of Queen Elizabeths—out of the hive and lets her crawl around a treasured old map. Wherever the queen stops is their next destination, and this year it's New York City.Sugar sets up her honeybees on the balcony of an East Village walk-up and then––as she's done everywhere since leaving South Carolina––she gets to know her neighbors. She is, after all, a former debutante who believes that manners make the world a better place even if they seem currently lacking in the big city.Plus, she has a knack for helping people. There's Ruby with her scrapbook of wedding announcements; single mom Lola; reclusive chef Nate; and George, a courtly ex-doorman. They may not know what to make of her bees and her politeness, but they can't deny the magic in her honey.And then there's Theo, a delightfully kind Scotsman who crosses Sugar's path as soon as she gets into town and is quickly besotted. But love is not on the menu for Sugar. She likes the strong independent woman she's become since leaving the South and there's nothing a charmer like Theo can do to change her mind . . . only her bees can do that.The Wedding Bees is a novel about finding sweetness where you least expect it and learning to love your way home.

Mouth of Hell


María Negroni - 2013
    poetry

I've Been Thinking About You, Sister


Witi Ihimaera - 2013
    His sister is an old woman now, her husband is even older, but that's not going to stop them from setting off across the world alone, to the great consternation of their children who wonder if they will ever get there and back.This moving and entertaining story is a fictionalised version of the trip to Tunisia taken by the author's elderly parents. Musing upon postcolonial politics and perspectives, it also considers the lyrical form the author used at the beginning of his literary career and the wit, style and drama that readers can discover in his newer works.

Errata


Hal Duncan - 2013
    Here, fans of VELLUM & INK can delve deeper into the mythos of The Book of All Hours, while new readers will find a stand-alone story, a wild ride into the world of a work described as "the Guernica of genre fiction."

Indigo


Molara Wood - 2013
    Another faces up to tough choices in the wake of a military coup... A heroine from history lights the path for a modern girl on the road to Jenwi... A picture on a wall tells its own poignant story of sacrifice... A former cultist must confront an unspoken secret in his family...From Nigeria to the Diaspora, joy, sadness, anxieties and triumphs fill the canvas with lush, vivid colours. Themes of loss and longing, past and present, home and away, mysticism and modernity, trauma and healing, truth and lies, masculinity and a woman’s place – all are deftly explored in this mesmerising, sometimes devastating collection of short stories.* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *"These stories announce a strong, distinctive voice, powered in equal measure by love and rage. They offer perspectives on life in all its messy multiplicity, mythical and real. Molara Wood writes with admirable sensitivity; her characters are a healthy mixture of the self-aware, the compassionate, the innocent, and the worldly-wise; and the variety itself is proof of a mastery of complex emotions. I read these stories with a genuine sense of gratitude." - AKIN ADESOKAN, Author of Roots in the Sky."In this stunning collection, colourful characters speak triumphantly of the enigma and beauty that is Africa. Indigo is a lovely metaphor for the collage of stories lovingly spun together. The tapestry is beautiful, warm, and comforting. These are stories rendered in a griot’s voice, just as the storytellers of old would have told them." - IKHIDE IKHELOA, Writer and Critic. "In Indigo is sedulous craft and daring that sets Molara Wood apart in the genre of short stories. Indigo is a first collection that never reads like one. It is, at once, all-efflorescence and all-flourish." - TADE IPADEOLA, author of The Sahara Testaments.

The Delphi Room


Melia McClure - 2013
    after Velvet hangs herself and winds up trapped in a bedroom she believes is Hell, she comes in contact with Brinkley, the man trapped next door.

Writing That Risks: New Work from Beyond the Mainstream


Liana Holmberg - 2013
    Inspired by literary risk-takers like Italo Calvino, Margaret Atwood, and Junot Diaz, they are award-winning and emerging writers from around the world. Ranging from surreal to experimental, fabulist to slipstream, these works marry imagination with meaning to create fiction, poetry, and nonfiction that is provocative and fresh. In these pages, you'll meet the mother of a shape-shifting kindergartener, a drug mule in communion with an ancient god, and a woman made to feel through her husband's skin. Open the book and join us on an adventure into the unexpected and wondrous.Contributors: aJbishop, Catie Jarvis, Christina Olson, Dan Sklar, David Ellis Dickerson, Edmund Zagorin, Erin Fitzgerald, Jenny Bitner, Joanne M. Clarkson, John Newman, Jønathan Lyons, Jordan Reynolds, LaTasha N. Nevada Diggs, Libby Hart, Mariev Finnegan, Michelle S. Lee, Molly English, Norman Lock, Olga Zilberbourg, Patrick Cole, Rachel Yoder, Robert Neilson, Sharif Shakhshir, Soren Gauger, Steve Castro, Thia Li Colvin, Wendy Patrice Williams, xTx, Zach Powers

A Second Path


G.A. Wilson - 2013
    Regression therapy exposes his identity and reveals a strong past life connection to the Edinburgh museum. As Kate struggles to come to terms with this startling discovery, her marriage collapses. Kate is forced to forge a new life for herself, while still learning about her mysterious past. She soon finds herself torn between two lives, two eras and two men. Egyptologist David Young assists Kate on her journey of self-discovery by giving her a place on his team. Handsome and enigmatic, David soon harbours deeper feelings for Kate. But both are haunted by the past. Then David makes a startling discovery which threatens to tear them apart forever...