Latin Magical Realism

Marisol vanished during the Cuban Revolution, disappearing with hardly a trace. Now, shaped by atrocities long-forgotten, her foul-mouthed spirit visits her nephew, Ramon, in modern-day New Jersey. Her hope: That her presence will prompt him to unearth their painful family history. Ramon launches a haphazard investigation into the story of his ancestor, unaware of the forces driving him on his search. Along the way, he falls in love, faces a run-in with a murderous gangster, and uncovers the lives of the lost saints who helped Marisol during her imprisonment.

What does it mean to be other? What does it mean to love in a world determined to keep us apart? These questions murmur in the heart of each of Brenda Peynado’s strange and singular stories. Threaded with magic, transcending time and place, these stories explore what it means to cross borders and break down walls, personally and politically.

The sea has always called to Sofia, even when she and her mom lived in a big city nowhere near its shore. That's how Sofia always knew she was a mermaid--that, and the fact that the sea and its creatures are much easier to understand than people. Like her mother, who is sending Sofia away instead of her barracuda of a boyfriend; that's a flying fish if Sofia's ever seen one, spending so much time reaching for the sky she can't see what's going on below the surface. When Sofia meets her abuela, she knows she's up against a sea dragon.

En este relato de imaginación desbordante y gran belleza, Karina Sainz Borgo mezcla la realidad con lo fantástico y el mito para levantar, con una prosa cuidadísima y muy poética, un mundo nuevo centrado en una isla imaginaria donde habita el doctor Schubert, medio médico y medio aventurero.

If an inanimate object could give you what you are missing in your life, would you keep it or throw it away? What if the item revealed magical worlds, fabulous opportunities, and a chance to change everything in your world? When a young woman named Annie, who lives in Washington State, discovers a camera that can come into her dreams and take photographs, it forever changes her life and those after her who possess it.

This magical realist short tale was inspired by the Latin American myth of El Sombrerón, the nighttime guardian of peace and justice. El Sombrerón arrives in a sleepy town to find that a young girl has stolen a golden necklace. El Sombrerón must convince the girl to return the necklace so she can avoid El Sombrerón’s justice…and before the sun rises.

Antonio and the Ceiling Fan: A New Mexican Christmas Story is a short story set in rural northern New Mexico. It is a holiday story of magical realism, focusing on a teenager coming to realize the power of his family, his mother, and the mortality that we all face. He also has a talking ceiling fan. Disclaimer: This short story contains a fair amount of Spanish dialog, most of which is described in context.