Metaphysical Fiction

Lauren Pailing is born in the '60s, and a child of the '70s. She is 13 years old the first time she dies. Lauren Pailing is a teenager in the '80s, becomes a Londoner in the '90s. And each time she dies, new lives begin for the people who loved her - while Lauren enters a brand new life, too. But in each of Lauren’s lives, a man called Peter Stanning disappears. And, in each of her lives, Lauren sets out to find him. And so it is that every ending is also a beginning. And so it is that, with each new beginning, Peter Stanning inches closer to finally being found....

Beloved for the lens of the strange he places on small-town life, Steven Millhauser further reveals in Voices in the Night the darkest parts of our inner selves to brilliant and dazzling effect. Here are stories of wondrously imaginative hyperrealism, stories that pose unsettling what-ifs or that find barely perceivable evils within the safe boundaries of our towns, homes, and even our bodies.

Presented as a fictionalized autobiography, The Master of the Prado begins in Madrid in 1990, when Sierra encounters a mysterious stranger named Luis Fovel within the halls of the Prado. Fovel takes him on a whirlwind tour and promises to uncover startling secrets hidden in the museum's masterpieces - secrets that open up a whole new world to Sierra. The enigmatic Fovel reveals how a variety of visions, prophesies, conspiracies, and even heresies inspired masters such as Raphael, Titian, and Hieronymus Bosch....

During the day, he’s a South Chicago high school janitor, slopping a mop around from nine o’clock to three o’clock, five days a week. At night, hiding out in a boarded-up factory, he attends to his damaged interstellar spacecraft, making repairs and counting the days until he can return to his homeworld of Calunoth. All he needs to do is mind his own business and avoid any messy human dramas for just a few more weeks. But it is on one of those quiet nights when he hears them outside: the MP140s. Named for a police radio code for murder, they're among the most ruthless killers.

Late one night, fate brings together DJ Aspirin and 10-year-old Alyona. After he tries to save her from imminent danger, she ends up at his apartment. But in the morning sinister doubts set in. Who is Alyona? A young con artist? A plant for a nefarious blackmailer? Or perhaps a long-lost daughter Aspirin never knew existed? Whoever this mysterious girl is, she now refuses to leave. A game of cat-and-mouse has begun. Claiming that she is a musical prodigy, Alyona insists she must play a complicated violin piece to find her brother.

Zane, a humble farmer with a heart of gold, was raised in the village by his mother and grandmother, Teitao. His love for his neighbor, Lauren, was deep and unwavering. Their peaceful lives were shattered when a cruel ruler's soldiers tore Lauren away, condemning her to a life of servitude at the palace. With a steadfast spirit, Zane decided to embark on an incredible journey to rescue her, bravely stepping beyond the familiar.

Die schüchterne Nathalie wünscht sich nichts sehnlicher als Ruhe. Kurzerhand bucht sie einen Meditationsworkshop in einem idyllischen Seminarhaus im Wald. Doch von Entspannung keine Spur. Während der stillen Übungen hört sie plötzlich die Stimmen der anderen, die ihr pikante Geständnisse machen. Außerdem sieht sie Dinge, die der Rest der Gruppe nicht wahrnimmt. Am Anfang glauben alle noch an eine logische Erklärung, bis in Nathalie der Gedanke aufkeimt, dass sie manipuliert wird. Wem kann sie noch trauen? Eine Jagd zwischen Realität und Wahn beginnt, aus der es scheinbar kein Entkommen gibt.

Hundreds of thousands of people have totally lost the ability to sleep. Run by the wealthy and enigmatic Storch brothers, the Slumber Corps is at the forefront of the fight against this deadly new disease. But when Trish is confronted by "Baby A", the first universal sleep donor, and the mysterious "Donor Y", whose horrific, infectious nightmares are threatening to sweep through the precious sleep supply, her faith in the organization and in her own motives begins to falter.

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.

Feminism fuels fantasy in this genre-busting collection by "master of the fantastic" (Roxane Gay) Amber Sparks. Exciting fans of such writers as Kelly Link, Karen Russell, and Carmen Maria Machado with prose that shimmers and stings, Amber Sparks holds a singular role in the canon of the weird. Now, she reaches new, uncanny heights with And I Do Not Forgive You.

In searing, beautiful prose, Sam Shepard's extraordinary narrative tells in a brilliant braid of voices the story of an unnamed narrator who traces, before our rapt ears, his memories of work, adventure, and travel as he undergoes medical tests and treatments for a condition that is rendering him more and more dependent on the loved ones who are caring for him. The narrator's memories and preoccupations often echo those of our current moment - for here are stories of immigration and community, inclusion and exclusion, suspicion and trust.

The discovery of an ancient cuneiform guides an unlikely group to a secret portal buried in the desert long ago. A near-death experience in the Iraq desert transforms the lives of the FBI’s most wanted terrorist and his young disciple and alters the fate of a Pulitzer Prize-winning female journalist and a decorated US Marine about to be executed. Guided by a visionary young girl from Peru, they become aware of an ancient past and an energy force placed deep under the desert sand thousands of years ago.

Anthropologist Calliope Santiago awakens to find herself in a strange and sinister wasteland, a shadow of the New Mexico she knew. Empty vehicles litter the road. Everyone has disappeared - or almost everyone. Calliope, heavy-bellied with the twins she carries inside her, must make her way across this dangerous landscape with a group of fellow survivors in search of answers. Long-dead volcanoes erupt, the ground rattles and splits, and monsters come to ominous life. Calliope will be forced to reconcile the geological record with the heritage she once denied.

El protagonista de La vida breve, Brausen, escucha a través de una pared una conversación entre un hombre y una mujer. Imagina sus gestos, sus sentimientos... Brausen vive con su mujer, mutilada tras una complicada operación, y para compensar ese vacío físico que detendrá sus caricias, él imagina historias: la de Santa María, y la de un médico llamado Díaz Grey. Pero no solo desea imaginar que es otro, también quiere serlo.

Antoine, la quarantaine, est expert en assurances. Depuis longtemps, trop longtemps, il estime, indemnise la vie des autres. Une nuit, il s'intéresse à la valeur de la sienne et nous entraîne au cœur de notre humanité. Du nord de la France à la côte ouest du Mexique, "On ne voyait que le bonheur" offre aussi une plongée dans le monde de l'adolescence, pays de tous les dangers et de toutes les promesses.

“Alternate Personalities of a Cosmic Mind” is an existential exploration of reality, consciousness, and identity told through the eyes of Maia Yetta Rose, an EMT whose ordinary life unravels into extraordinary revelations. She is haunted by vivid dreams, persistent déjà vu, and a growing sense that the boundaries separating individuals, nature, and the universe are illusions. This isn’t just in her head—it’s a window into a truth far deeper than science or religion.

After Gleb Yanovsky, a celebrated guitarist, is diagnosed with Parkinson's disease at age fifty, he permits a writer, Sergei Nesterov, to pen his biography. For years, they meet regularly as Gleb recounts the life he's lived: a difficult childhood in Kyiv, his formative musical studies in St. Petersburg, and his later years in Munich, where he lives with his wife and meets a thirteen-year-old virtuoso whom he embraces as his own daughter. In a mischievous and tender account, Gleb recalls a personal story of a lifetime quest for meaning, and how the burden of success changes with age.

Gregor Buckingham, a young man scarred from a childhood fire, has little going for him - no family, a heartbreaking job, and an existence untouched by intimacy. Now, Sedona is calling to him. In the Northern Arizona town celebrated for mysterious energy vortexes, UFO sightings, and other paranormal activity, Gregor discovers a lost ancient power, his first requited love, and a zealous enemy he must fight to save them both.

Pregnant with her father's child, 19-year-old Courtney is a girl on the run, willing to do anything to make her way on the road. When a car accident leaves her wounded by the side of a desolate highway, she is taken in by an environmentalist doomsday cult led by the enigmatic Saint Ambrose, a charismatic preacher and ex-environmental scientist who gave up everything after claiming to see the face of God. When he meets the seemingly vulnerable Courtney, he is taken by her beauty and her wounded soul.

For all of Malachi’s life, he believed he was ordinary. Lived as just another man trying to make his way through the trials of life. Unbeknownst to him, he was meant for a much greater purpose and has abilities he could have never imagined. Even armed with this knowledge, Malachi still isn’t sure he has the courage to do what’s necessary to save millions of lives.