Magical Realism

These novels blur the line between the real and the surreal. One Hundred Years of Solitude and The House of the Spirits build rich family sagas. Pedro Páramo and Like Water for Chocolate mix myth, ghosts and passion. Gods of Jade and Shadow takes us to the Mayan era. These stories don’t escape reality, they reveal it through enchantment. A perfect introduction to Latin America’s most celebrated literary tradition.

9780241968581-One Hundred Years of Solitude

One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel García Márquez

Though little more than a settlement surrounded by mountains, Macondo has its wars and disasters, even its wonders and its miracles. A microcosm of Colombian life, its secrets lie hidden, encoded in a book, and only Aureliano Buendía can fathom its mysteries and reveal its shrouded destiny. Blending political reality with magic realism, fantasy and comic invention, One Hundred Years of Solitude is one of the most daringly original works of the twentieth century.

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9780099528562-The House of the Spirits

The House of the Spirits - Isabel Allende

As a girl, Clara del Valle can read fortunes, make objects move as if they had lives of their own, and predict the future. Following the mysterious death of her sister, Rosa the Beautiful, Clara is mute for nine years. When she breaks her silence, it is to announce that she will be married soon to the stern and volatile landowner Esteban Trueba. Set in an unnamed Latin American country over three generations, The House of the Spirits is a magnificent epic of a proud and passionate family, secret loves and violent revolution.

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9780552995870-Like Water For Chocolate

Like Water for Chocolate - Laura Esquivel

Like Water For Chocolate tells the captivating story of the De la Garza family. As the youngest daughter, Tita is forbidden by Mexican tradition to marry. Instead, she pours all of her emotions into her delicious recipes, which she shares with readers along the way. When Tita falls in love with Pedro, he is seduced by the magical food she cooks. Unfortunately, he's married to her sister... Filled with recipes, longing and bittersweet humour, this charming story of one family's life in turn-of-the-century Mexico has captivated readers all over the world and was made into an award-winning film.

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Book cover of 'Gods of Jade and Shadow' with decorative elements and silhouette of a person.

Gods of Jade and Shadow - Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Casiopea Tun is too busy scrubbing floors in her wealthy grandfather's house to do anything more than dream of a life far from her dusty, small town in southern Mexico. A life she could call her own. Until one day, when Casiopea opens a curious chest in her grandfather's room and accidentally frees an ancient Mayan god of death. He offers her a deal: if Casiopea helps him recover his throne from his treacherous brother, he will grant her whatever she desires. In the company of the alluring god and armed only with her wits, Casiopea begins an adventure that will take her from the jungles of Yucatán to the bright lights of Mexico City and deep into the darkness of Xibalba, the Mayan underworld.

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9781800812871-Pedro Paramo : Now on Netflix

Pedro Paramo - Juan Rulfo

Juan Preciado sets out on a strange quest, bound by a promise to his dying mother. Embarking down a parched and dusty road, Juan goes to seek his father, Pedro Páramo, from whom they fled many years ago. The ruined town of Comala is alive with whispers and shadows. Time shifts from one consciousness to another in a hypnotic flow of desires and memories, a world of ghosts dominated by the tyranny of the Páramo family. Womaniser, overlord and murderer, Juan's notorious father retains an eternal grip over Comala. Its barren and broken-down streets echo the voices of tormented spirits sharing the secrets of the past in an extraordinary chorus of sensory images, violent passions and unfathomable mysteries.

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