Literary Realism

"We'd had to be cut free of our mother's womb. Abby and I were fused, you see. But here's the real kicker; Abby had the magic, I didn't." Now adults, Makeda and Abby still share their childhood home. The surgery to separate the two girls left Makeda with what feels like an even worse deformity: no mojo. The daughters of a celestial demigod and a human woman, Makeda and Abby were raised by their magical father. Today, Makeda has decided it's high time to move out and make her own life.

Calamity is confronting two big transitions: the death of her beloved father and the beginning of menopause, a physical shift that has rekindled her gift for finding lost things. Suddenly, she is getting hot flashes that seem to forge objects out of thin air, most notably a four-year old boy. As Calamity takes the child into her care, she discovers that all is not as it seems. Then, Calamity must reawaken to the mysteries surrounding her own childhood and the early disappearance of her mother.

The Host in the Attic by Rohan Quine is a hologram of Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray, digitised and reframed in cinematic style, set in London’s Docklands in a few years’ time. Brilliant software engineer Rik and executive Jaymi work at digital agencies in London (surely unaware that their fates are destined to echo those of Basil and Dorian, respectively the painter and the subject of Wilde's novel). Rik uses Jaymi’s appearance as the model for a cutting-edge interactive hologram that navigates the Web in enhanced ways, tailored to every user....

Semi-autobiographical in nature, these 14 stories span the period from the author's childhood to the present. We are introduced, in a series of beautifully imagined and crafted cameos, to the author's family, friends, and various other people who left a lasting impression on him. In other stories we revisit Bond's beloved Garhwal hills and the small towns and villages that he has returned to time and again in his fiction.

Береза по-фински будет koivu — это позывной нового отца Симы, пропахшего рыбой, копченым дымом и свежей травой. А еще у Симы есть мама, которую он очень любит. Однажды при загадочных обстоятельствах она превращается в прозрачную водяную женщину с водорослями вместо волос. Как жить дальше, когда над тобой постоянно довлеет семейная тайна? Мысли о будущем тяжелые и далекие, как строительные краны, которыми утыкано небо чужих кварталов. Но у Симы есть Сан Серыч Пушкин, друг Рупла и прекрасная Елена.

Estamos en Macondo y su región una vez más, entre personajes y episodios reconocibles, pero ahora caen pájaros muertos sobre el poblado, rompiendo mosquiteros y alambradas, un cura ve al diablo o afirma haber encontrado al judío errante, y visitar la tumba de un ser querido supone un riesgo impredecible. Y hay que enterrar a la Mamá Grande, soberana absoluta de este mundo, que falleció en olor de santidad a los noventa y dos años, tras haber conservado la virginidad durante toda su vida, y a cuyos funerales acude el presidente de la República y hasta el Sumo Pontífice en su góndola papal.

Life doesn’t end. Reality isn’t fixed. Time doesn’t work the way you think. Even the universe, despite its size, is surprisingly aware of and attuned to each of us. Then come those moments when all boundaries dissolve, worlds merge, and we are given glimpses into how connected everything is. Call Me Jonah is the story of an ordinary man who experiences such extraordinary moments starting in childhood and that continue throughout his lifetime. Afraid of ridicule, he keeps hidden what he learns from each mystical encounter for decades.

A family gift of reading the spirits in flames has taken everything from her, but can it give her everything she needs? In The Stars Will Guide Us Back, 13 short stories encapsulating the elements of speculative fiction and magical realism travel the themes of mental health, loss, mortality, self-confidence, and finding hope through difficult circumstances. Explore the immersive worlds within, along with a range of peculiar, distinct, and queer characters.

Un viejo periodista decide festejar sus noventa años a lo grande, dándose un regalo que le hará sentir que todavía está vivo: una jovencita. En el prostíbulo de un pintoresco pueblo, ve a la jovencita de espaldas, completamente desnuda, y su vida cambia radicalmente. Ahora que la conoce se encuentra a punto de morir, pero no por viejo, sino de amor.

Humayun Ahmed has represented Himu to us with Moyurakkhi [Peacock]. Hearing the name of Himu, our eyes imagine a young bear-footed man wearing a yellow Panjabi with a large beard and three betel-colored teeth. The full name of Himu is Himalaya. Himu has a river of the imagination whose name is Moyurakkhi.

Eleven-year-old Brian Page spends every waking moment in the forest behind the house where he lives with his father. But forests are always deeper than anyone can know. Secrets are hidden in the eternal twilight of the trees. Those secrets emerge into light when Brian disappears in the forest, as his father did three decades before. His father, however, came home with no memory of the events in the depths of the forest. What has drawn Brian away? Will he emerge, shuddering and broken, as his father did, or will the forests close around him, as they have done so often before?

Iris Harper has lived in Pendleford for decades. The local witch is mistrusted by the townsfolk, but that doesn't stop some coming to her begging for potions, spells and quick-fixes. As time has marched on suddenly Iris is aware that her days are beginning to fade. Her sumptuous garden is turning against her, the sweet scent of rot potent and now a young girl has come begging for a solution at her door. Yet, the problem she brings causes Iris to remember a man from long ago - the man she loved, the man she could never trust.

After 10 years, Hansel Nothing returns to his boyhood home, unable to remember anything that has happened to him since he left. Back home, he stays in Zerostrata, a treehouse in the backyard. The Nothing family is as dysfunctional and depressed as ever. His mother keeps a cat on her head and incessantly munches prescription medication. His father has left the house to pursue a career as a superhero. His brother wants to be the dad's superhero sidekick and thinks he can fly. Hansel's life is changed forever when he meets Gretel, a free-spirited woman who runs naked through the woods every night....

Irgendwo im Süden, im Herzen der Stadt, wo die Menschen arm sind und das Gesetz der Straße gilt: Hier wachsen Mimmo, Cristofaro und Celeste auf. Sie haben Träume und Hoffnungen, obwohl ihnen der kindliche Blick längst abhanden gekommen ist. Mimmos Vater, der Fleischer des Viertels, betrügt seine Kunden mit einer präparierten Waage. Cristofaros Vater, ein Trinker, schlägt seinen Sohn jeden Abend. Und Celestes Mutter Carmela, die Prostituierte des Viertels, schickt ihre Tochter auf den Balkon, wenn sie ihre Freier empfängt.

Who was Tesla? What made Tesla so special? Why don't we study Tesla in schools? Have scientists ever measured the frequencies that the neurons in the brain can detect? Listen to find out more.

An Australian shamaness traveling in the body of a Chicago bartender leads to a surreal rendezvous with a presumed-dead rock star. An OkCupid encounter turns into blissful madness when souls connect over a national tragedy. A bloody accident at a city bus stop gives way to an absurdly rewarding feast.

In Hallucination in Hong Kong by Rohan Quine, sliding from joy to nightmare and back, a plane flight frames a journey into Jaymi’s and Angel’s polarised identities and perceptions, where past and present merge in an obsessive fantasy of love, death, horror, and apocalyptic beauty.

In Apricot Eyes by Rohan Quine, a cat-and-mouse pursuit through the New York City night involves a preacher, a psychic and a dominatrix, broadcast live on air - until a horror is unearthed, bringing two of them together and the third to a sticky end. Having partially regained a power of second sight that he’d once possessed but lost, Jaymi Peek uses this ability in a live weekly television show online, where he channels onto the screen those unexpected places, hidden colors and hatching plans that he can perceive throughout New York City.

Un placido lago di montagna ha un abitante misterioso, un essere solitario che conduce la sua esistenza in una caverna sottomarina. Da sotto la superficie dell'acqua, senza mai farsi vedere, osserva il mondo esterno, ne invidia i colori sgargianti, e guarda con curiosità e paura a quegli esseri così diversi da lui che animano le rive del lago. Può sentire le vibrazioni dei loro sentimenti, ma ha troppa paura per mostrarsi. Quando arriva sul pontile una ragazza speciale, dai capelli rossi e lo sguardo triste, tutto cambia. Le sue vibrazioni sono diverse da quelle di tutti gli altri.

“In villages where women bore most of the weight of a constricted life, witches flew by night on broomsticks,” said Italo Calvino of the way imagination bridges the gap between everyday existence and an idealized alternative. The 15 stories of Animal Wife are each about girls and women who cross this threshold seeking liberation from family responsibilities, from societal expectations, from their own minds.