Fiction Realism

Ebey’s End is a small town on an island off the Pacific coast, reachable only by ferry (assuming the gods are with you and it’s not a Tuesday). It’s a comfortable, familiar (but okay, fine, sometimes lonely) life for its resident grocer Anita Odom. That is, until fourteen-year-old July shows up on her doorstep. Taking in the recently orphaned daughter of an estranged cousin had not been on Anita’s to-do list. In fact, it’s a terrible idea. Anita is ill-suited, ill-prepared, and absolutely certain the entire enterprise will end in disaster—for both of them.

Colin Bott is a middle-aged man who loses his job as an unsuccessful letting agent, and discovers how to speak at funeral services as a Celebrant. When attending the funeral of his boss’s wife, Colin discovers the service is being conducted by a non-religious person – a Celebrant. He is intrigued by this, and on losing his job, and several new job disasters, he decides that becoming a Celebrant is the job for him.

"The Gift" explores the profound influence of ancient wisdom and the transformative power of spiritual growth. Molly's journey encompasses more than the physical search for sacred objects; it's an inner quest for peace, purpose, and a deeper understanding of life's enigmatic mysteries.

It’s 1973 and Amy, an American ex-pat, is living as an illegal immigrant in Toronto where she’s fled to escape the scandal surrounding her twin sister’s death by drowning. Joanie’s been gone two years, but Amy still hears her cries for help. Romance would jeopardize the secrets Amy has to keep, but when she meets Arcus, a graduate student working to restore democracy in Greece, she falls hard. Arcus doesn’t know about Amy’s past, and she doesn’t know Arcus has secrets of his own, including the shady history of an ancient relic he uses as a paperweight.

Impulsive, budding artist, Pearl, jumps on a bus headed for the driest place she knows, Australia’s Nullarbor Plain, to escape a terrifying undersea curse, only to find it waiting for her in a fish tank when she arrives. In her Aunty’s derelict roadhouse, she amuses and outrages the local misfits by seeing their hidden traumas in watery visions–which she paints. Eddie, a hot, young windmill repairer, shows interest, but soon must vie for this amazing artist’s attention with Italian cave diver, Massimo.

Oriane is the skylark, and the sun only rises if she wills it. Every morning, she transforms from woman to bird, calling the dawn with her song. Seclusion has kept her safe her whole life – but it has also left her lonely, and craving freedom. When Oriane finally succumbs to the lure of the wild unknown, she is discovered in the gardens of the royal palace, where she is taken in by the king and treated like a goddess – and a prisoner.

In elementary school, Chloe Hanako Quinn is assigned Oliver Jones as her pen pal partner. Before sending her letter, she also whispers a note into it…and he hears her. Little does she know it would be the beginning of a friendship that would bloom into something more. That is, until disaster strikes, and Oliver and his family disappear without a trace. Now over twenty years later, Chloe is a high school guidance counselor in New York City. But life in the Big Apple is not what she dreamed it would be as she faces a layoff, rising rent, a situationship, and loneliness.

Ида - сирота из обедневшего дворянского рода, живущая в церковном приюте вместе со своим братом. Однажды на пороге приюта появляется загадочный родственник и забирает детей в свой дом. Как выжить в незнакомом мире аристократов и оставить в тайне свои магические способности в королевстве, где магии нет уже тысячу лет?

Alison is mired in loneliness and grief. Freshly twenty-three and mourning the loss of her younger sister, who has drowned at sea, she’s moved out of her hometown and into a cramped apartment on New York’s Lower East Side. Now she’s living the cliché—barely making rent as a restaurant hostess, avoiding her roommates, and watching the bright, busy passersby from her bubble of grief. She doesn’t need originality; she just needs to be alive. So why does she feel she isn’t truly living? Until late one night, when she rounds the corner and sees a shape in the air—a ghost.

Among us walk a race older than time, around us are doorways to other realities and people who are not recognised for who and what they truly are. Among them dwell Hunter and Brighid, Black Annis, Willie the fiddle player and Raven, the most anti-social of them all, and the many others who keep magic alive in the world and who touch, in passing, those who seem lost merely because they have been blinded by disregard.

Rennie King's life isn't at all what she expected when she married the hotshot baseball player from her small town of Spark, Tennessee. Reeling from the loss of her most recent pregnancy, she desperately needs the support of her husband, but instead of comfort, she finds he is increasingly angry and often turns that anger on her. When a bee lands on her arm one day, Rennie knows she needs to go check on her beloved uncle. How she knows, well, she doesn't really want to explore that just yet. Sure enough, when she arrives, she finds him collapsed on the ground.

بعد انفصال والديه انتقل الصبي إلى العيش مع جدّه "مأمون" الذي أحبّه أكثر من أيّ شيءٍ في الوجود وتعلَّق بحكاياته التي يقصّها عليه كلَّ مساء، فعاشت أساطير الجد في قلب الطفل وعشّشت في مخيلته، فأحبَّ "الغزالة الأم" أم القرون التي يروي عنها الجدّ حكاياتٍ قديمة حيث اعتقد النّاس بأنّها من تُساعدهم على البقاء أحياء، وحلُم ب"السفينة البيضاء" تلك النقطة البعيدة في البحر فقد كان جدّه يعطيه منظارًا لمراقبتها ويصف مداخلها ومخارجها ولاعتقاد الصبيّ بأنَّ والده أحد العاملين فيها فقد تعلَّق بها بشدّة وأصبحت رفيقة أحلامه.

There are many rules those who wish to live and work behind the mysterious walled gardens of Le Château du Paradis must follow. One must not gossip. One must not leave their room during dusk. And most importantly for the newest gardener, Eloise Bourne, children are forbidden. Although she's locked inside the castle grounds and subjected to strange rules, Eloise's new home enchants her with otherworldly lodging and magical flowers. Best of all, her co-workers—who are also retreating from the world—spark her to heal both body and soul.

الحقيقة خيالٌ إن أنكرتها... والخيال حقيقة إن صدَّقته...ولكن كيف ستعرف الحقيقة من الخيال وقد اختفى الحبر من الكتب في ظاهرةٍ غريبة تنتشر في مصر انتشار النّار في الهشيم؟! ظاهرةٍ عجيبة أدَّت إلى استغلال الحدَث بتزييف التّاريخ والحقائق والقوانين وظهور رابطة سريّة تعمل على توثيق التّاريخ من ذاكرتها.

إن العشق والسحر كلاهما عالم مثير، غامض وخفي، إنه الشغف الذي تملكها فأهلكها، ودفعت من أجله الثمن!!.."

Winnie and her mom have been “two girls against the world” for longer than Winnie can remember. But now Mom is moving Winnie away from her beloved Denver, away from her two best friends. In Rock Springs, Wyoming, Winnie will have to make new friends (hard), go to a school where the kids tease her (unbearable), and get used to living with her stepfather-to-be and his annoying son (impossible). Winnie is determined to find a way back to Denver and her old life. But how? If only the magic in the stories that Winnie adores were true.

Septimania, la primera novela de Jonathan Levi tras su aclamado libro A Guide for the Perplexed, es una gran obra: una historia al mismo tiempo personal y mítica, con temas tan grandes como el universo y tan pequeños como una semilla de manzana.

In modern-day Mexico, Sitlali has no family left and has caught the attention of a gang leader. She has no choice but to make the perilous trip to the US border and track down her long-absent father. The night before her journey, she finds a conch shell detailed with ancient markings. In 1521, Calizto is an Aztec young warrior in Tenochtitlan, fighting to save his city from Spanish imperialists. With his family dead and the horrors of war surrounding him, Calizto asks a sacred moon conch for guidance. Connected by the magical conch, Sitlali and Calizto can communicate across centuries.

The stories in Animal Husbandry all deal in some way with mythology, from animal fables to imaginary friends to the myths people tell themselves. In some cases, the myths are fantastical: a farmer finds his cow has given birth to a surprising offspring; a guitarist tries to improve his skills with a visit to the crossroads; or a young girl meets with a visitor in the woods to plot against her neighbors. Others concern everyday mythology: a small-town ballplayer struggles to earn a nickname; or a man's clean bill of health arrives at the worst possible time.

Art and life. Each the mirror of the other. This then is the classic definition of what ‘Realism’ as a writing form really is. Some might call it a fancy term for the mundane day to day pursuits but in the hands of an author it comes alive. We are drawn into characters and landscapes that we can empathize with, we can, metaphorically speaking, help shoulder their burden, be on the long trail with them whatever the landscapes, the hurdles, incidents and other people may place in their literary way.