magical realism Archives

Shark Heart

Would you still love me if I were a shark? Author: Emily Habeck Newlyweds Lewis and Wren dream of many things. Lewis, a failed actor and beloved teacher, still dreams that one day he will write the play to end all plays. And Wren, she dreams of never being abandoned again, of embracing someone who will stay. Both will have their hearts broken. Lewis notices the changes at first and thinks nothing of them, but eventually he puts aside his avoidance and goes to the doctor. The diagnosis is stark. His body is, indeed, changing, and there is nothing they can [...]

Empire of Dirt, The

Lyrical, Literary, Loathsome, and Lifeless Author: Francesca Manfredi Valentia lives in the “blind house,” in rural Italy, growing up with her religious grandmother and her disenchanted, flighty mother. The house is said to be cursed; the women abnormal. The townsfolk stay away, and as her period approaches and she grows from childhood into womanhood, Valentia suspects that the walls weeping blood, the plagues of locust and frogs, and the men who cannot remain are all somehow tied to her. Has the curse come alive again through her emerging womanhood? The Empire of Dirt is ostensibly a coming-of-age novel, told through the [...]