Metaphysical Fiction

"It is fitting that I'm beginning a new notebook up here. New surroundings and new ideas, a new beginning. Fresh air." This passage is from the first entry of a journal kept by the narrator of Daniel Kehlmann's spellbinding new novel. It is the record of the seven days that he, his wife, and his four-year-old daughter spend in a house they have rented in the mountains of Germany - a house that thwarts the expectations of the narrator's recollection and seems to defy the very laws of physics.

Gerard sits, fully clothed, in his empty bathtub and pines for Benna. Neighbors in the same apartment building, they share a wall, and Gerard listens for the sound of her toilet flushing. Gerard loves Benna. And then Benna loves Gerard. She listens to him play piano, she teaches poetry, and sings at nightclubs. As their relationship ebbs and flows, through reality and imagination, Lorrie Moore paints a captivating, innovative portrait of men and women in love and not in love.

When Julian meets Josephine, it's love at first sight. After a whirlwind courtship, he proposes and she accepts. Everything is wonderful - on the surface. Josephine is a girl with secrets.... Days before the wedding they have a huge argument, and before Julian can make things right, everything goes terribly, tragically wrong. Unable to let Josephine go, Julian digs into her past and discovers so much more than he ever bargained for.

In April, I woke up one morning, out of the blue, and there was a sort of voice in my head. Not exactly a voice, but sort of a telepathic thing, saying, “You will now write the Purple Fables, there will be four of them, and you will do one in each day and the title is to be Purple Fables,” and I said okay. They were sort of dictated from somebody else, someplace, I guess.

The Star Rover is a 1914 collection of science fiction short stories with the theme of reincarnation. It tells the story of Darrell Standing, an inmate of San Quentin’s death row. The narrator escapes the horror of prison life by withdrawing into altered states and the memory of past lives. Forming the body of the work, the accounts of these past lives are vivid but disconnected. They include a desert island survival story, one which involves a Roman perspective on Christ, a tale of medieval Korea, and one which takes place in a prehistoric era.

Following the tragic death of his sister, 1-year-old Dill's life changes forever. In an attempt to escape their grief, Dill and his parents move to his grandmother's remote cottage in the countryside. Isolated from his family, who are struggling to come to terms with their loss, Dill spends his time exploring the wild landscape with his trusty spaniel, Bramble. He soon learns that life in his new home, the Dip-n-Dells, is anything but lonely.

In this compendium of delightful short stories, David Michie draws us into the extraordinary experiences of everyday people as they encounter those tell-tale cracks exposing reality as not quite what it seems. Through intriguing story-lines and revelations, Michie offers life-enhancing insights. How better to gently unwind at the end of the day - and to prepare for the infinite possibilities we may encounter in the realms of our dreams?

Paulo es un joven que sueña con ser escritor, se deja el cabello largo y sale al mundo en busca de la libertad y para darle un significado profundo a su vida. Una jornada que va desde el famoso "Tren de la muerte a Bolivia", después Perú, Chile y Argentina, hasta el encuentro con Karla en Ámsterdam, quien lo convence de viajar juntos en el Magic Bus, un autobús que viaja por Europa y Asia Central hasta Katmandú. En el camino, Karla y Paulo no sólo vivirán una extraordinaria historia de amor, sino también conocerán a maravillosos compañeros de viaje.

After one death-defying adventure after another, he's ready for some well-deserved downtime. So he's gone to a hot beach in Mareta, a sleepy fishing village in southern Portugal. The year is 1964. He hopes only to flirt with bikinied tourists and drink cold Sagres beers. But two things seem to follow Matt wherever and whenever he goes. A chance to help someone in need, and trouble-trouble-trouble.

Once the most deeply cherished book in English-speaking households other than Bible itself, John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim's Progress is the allegorical tale of Christian the pilgrim on his journey to the Celestial City. Along the way, Christian encounters both worthy companions and dreadful adversaries. Although this book was written more than three hundred years ago, this stirring spiritual narrative still bears the power to challenge and encourage readers on their own spiritual journeys.

Eliza Naumann, a seemingly unremarkable 9-year-old, expects never to fit into her gifted family: her autodidact father, Saul, absorbed in his study of Jewish mysticism; her brother, Aaron, the vessel of his father's spiritual ambitions; and her brilliant but distant lawyer-mom, Miriam. But when Eliza sweeps her school and district spelling bees in quick succession, Saul takes it as a sign that she is destined for greatness.

After journeying across the stars, a man from Earth finds himself lost among the scarlet deserts, black cliffs and semi-sentient oceans of Tormance, a world lit by the star Arcturus. Pulled northward by the sound of drums, and undergoing strange physical transformations, the Earthman's adventures with the planet's inhabitants begin to shine with arcane significance - ending finally in startling and unforgettable revelations.

Booklist calls the world of Hugo Award winner Elizabeth Bear’s spellbinding Jacob’s Ladder series “magnificently populated, well worth visiting.” Here the trilogy that began with Dust and Chill draws to its stunning conclusion. The passengers of the generation spaceship Jacob’s Ladder have found a new home at last. But the planet Grail is already inhabited - and its population of genetically engineered humans has no intention of sharing the world.

As a writer lies dying, he has one last story to tell: a tale of faith and devotion, a meditation on what lies beyond this life, and a prayer of gratitude that may lead to rebirth.

Hay quien obedece sus propias reglas porque se sabe en lo cierto; quien expresa un especial placer en hacer algo bien; quien adivina algo más que lo que sus ojos ven; quien prefiere volar a comprar y comer. Todos ellos harán amistad duradera con Juan Salvador Gaviota. Habrá también quienes volarán con Juan Gaviota por lugares de encanto y aventura, y gozarán como él de una luminosa libertad. Para unos y otros será una experiencia inolvidable.

John William Barry has inherited the pedigree - and wealth - of two of Seattle's elite families; Neil Countryman is blue-collar Irish. Nevertheless, when the two boys meet in 1972 at age 16, they're brought together by what they have in common: a fierce intensity and a love of the outdoors that takes them together into Washington's remote backcountry.

Angharad "Harry" Russo has had a busy week. She's fended off a swarm of pixies, battled blood-thirsty redcaps, and put an end to a maniacal Fae prince hell-bent on eradicating the entire werewolf population. She's also decided to open a coffee shop. Is it too much to ask for things to settle down so her life can go back to normal? Apparently it is. As if being metaphysically bound to Cian Nash, the most aggravating-yet-desirable man she's ever met, isn't enough, Harry's just found out that the Magister, the biggest, baddest vampire around, is her father.

Millions of people are confronting aliens that authorities say do not exist. Now Whitley Strieber, author of the #1 best seller Communion, which detailed his own close encounters, returns with The Grays, a mind-bending journey behind the curtain of secrecy that surrounds the subject of aliens. This audiobook will make you think deeply, not only about the mystery of who the Grays are, but who exactly we are.

Anthropologist Theodore Hansen discovers a magical plant in the Amazon rainforest that has the potential to both heal and destroy society. He steals a cutting from the indigenous guardians of the plant and clones enough of it to sell to the world, becoming one of the richest humans alive.

For Bobbie, the normal difficulties of growing up are overshadowed by his unique condition. Bobbie's inability to communicate normally is misdiagnosed as autism, and masks the great part in history he is destined to play. His unique ability to create beautiful works of art is just the tip of the iceberg. Coveted by those who would use him for their own purpose, Bobbie and his mother flee their home out of desperation. In the course of their escape, the truth behind Bobbie's gift and its effects on the planet begin to reveal themselves, as the future of humanity hangs in the balance.