Books like 'Kangaroo Notebook'

Readers who enjoyed Kangaroo Notebook by Kōbō Abe also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.

historical fantasy 20th century magical-realism literary-fiction postmodernism low-fantasy

The Library of Babel by Jorge Luis Borges, Erik Desmazieres
Rated: 4.39 of 5 stars
· 18 ratings
Jorge Luis Borges's famous 1941 meditation on language, alphabets, and the library that contains all knowledge is an allegory of our Universe, and in this edition is complemented and enhanced by the etching of the French artist, Érik Desmazières...

Categorized as:
literary-fiction magical-realism 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook book classics
The Magic Faraway Tree by Enid Blyton
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars
· 28 ratings
Jo, Bessie and Fanny take their cousin Rick on an adventure he'll never forget to the magic Faraway Tree, where he meets Moon-Face, Silky the fairy and Saucepan Man, and visits all the different lands at the top of the Faraway Tree...

Categorized as:
literary-fiction low-fantasy magical-realism 20th-century action-adventure audiobook book children
The Aleph by Jorge Luis Borges
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars
· 20 ratings
Translation to English of the Spanish short story "El Aleph", originally published in 1945...

Categorized as:
magical-realism literary-fiction low-fantasy fiction classics fantasy 20th-century university
The Book of Fantasy by Jorge Luis Borges, Silvina Ocampo
Rated: 4.36 of 5 stars
· 14 ratings
The Book of Fantasy began one night when three friends fell to talking about fantasies and ghost stories...

Categorized as:
literary-fiction low-fantasy magical-realism 20th-century adult anthologies classics fiction
This I Know by Eldonna Edwards
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars
· 17 ratings
Set in a small Midwest town in the late 1960s and helmed by an unforgettable young protagonist—compassionate, uncannily wise Grace—This I Know is a luminous coming-of-age story from an astonishing new voice. Eleven-year-old Grace Carter has a talent for hiding things...

Categorized as:
literary-fiction magical-realism 20th-century audiobook book coming-of-age cults epic
In the Land of Armadillos: Stories by Helen Maryles Shankman
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars
· 10 ratings
A debut collection of linked stories from a two-time Pushcart Prize nominee, set in a German-occupied town in Poland, where tales of myth and folklore meet the real-life monsters of the Nazi invasion.1942. With the Nazi Party at the height of its power, the occupying army empties Poland’s towns and cities of their Jewish populations...

Categorized as:
literary-fiction magical-realism 20th-century 21st-century adult anthologies audiobook dark
The Garden of Forking Paths by Jorge Luis Borges, George Guidall
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars
· 18 ratings
"The Garden of Forking Paths" (original Spanish title: "El jardín de senderos que se bifurcan") is the title story in the collection El jardín de senderos que se bifurcan (1941), which was republished in its entirety in Ficciones (Fictions) in 1944...

Categorized as:
magical-realism literary-fiction low-fantasy fiction classics philosophy fantasy 20th-century
4: Fantastic Novels by Daniel Pinkwater, Scott Simon
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars
· 6 ratings
Four-fantastic-books-in-one by the popular author of The Hoboken Chicken Emergency: Borgel Yobgorgle The Worms of Kukumlima The Snarkout Boys & the Baconburg...

Categorized as:
low-fantasy magical-realism 20th-century action-adventure anthologies children children-books comedy
Black Water: The Book of Fantastic Literature by Alberto Manguel, Julio Cortázar
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars
· 8 ratings
This huge anthology offers a kaleidoscope of brilliant writing from the Magi of the imagination. Alberto Manguel has selected 72 fantastic tales from life on the edge of the twilight zone, with stories from Marguerite Yourcenar, Herman Hesse, Italo Calvino, Vladimir Nabokov, and many, many more...

Categorized as:
literary-fiction low-fantasy magical-realism 20th-century absurdism adult anthologies audiobook
The Love Elixir of Augusta Stern by Lynda Cohen Loigman
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars
· 8 ratings
It's never too late for new beginnings.On the cusp of turning eighty, newly retired pharmacist Augusta Stern is adrift. When she relocates to Rallentando Springs—an active senior community in southern Florida—she unexpectedly crosses paths with Irving Rivkin, the delivery boy from her father’s old pharmacy—and the man who broke her heart sixty years earlier...

Categorized as:
magical-realism literary-fiction north-america usa florida urban new-york-state romance
The Garden of the Departed Cats by Bilge Karasu
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars
· 10 ratings
In an ancient Mediterranean city, a tradition is maintained: every ten years an archaic game of human chess is staged, the players (visitors versus locals) bearing weapons. This archaic game, the central event of The Garden of the Departed Cats, may prove as fatal as the deadly attraction our narrator feels for the local man who is the Vizier, or Captain, of the home team...

Categorized as:
literary-fiction 20th-century adult book fiction historical historical-fiction lgbtq
The Philosopher's War by Tom Miller
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars
· 12 ratings
The second book in the thrilling series that began with The Philosopher’s Flight finds Robert Canderelli Weekes as a rookie Rescue and Evacuation flier on the front lines of World War I in France. He came to save lives, but has no idea how far he’ll have to go to win the war...

Categorized as:
literary-fiction low-fantasy magical-realism 20th-century action-adventure alternate-history audiobook book
A Single Swallow by Zhang Ling
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars
· 18 ratings
The eagerly awaited English translation of award-winning author Zhang Ling’s epic and intimate novel about the devastation of war, forgiveness, redemption, and the enduring power of love.On the day of the historic 1945 Jewel Voice Broadcast—in which Emperor Hirohito announced Japan’s surrender to the Allied forces, bringing an end to World War II—three men, flush with jubilation, made a pact...

Categorized as:
literary-fiction magical-realism 20th-century 21st-century action-adventure adult audiobook book
The Collected Stories of Stefan Zweig by Stefan Zweig
Rated: 4.43 of 5 stars
· 14 ratings
The collected stories of Stefan Zweig, one of the most popular writers of short fiction of the twentieth century This collection brings together twenty-three of Stefan Zweig's best-loved short stories. Written in his typically flowing and readable style, these tales are characterised by their pacing, their psychological insightfulness, and above all their pervading humanity...

Categorized as:
literary-fiction fiction classics 20th-century anthologies psychological fantasy historical
Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle's Magic by Betty MacDonald
Rated: 4.12 of 5 stars
· 25 ratings
Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle has a trick up her sleeve.Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle loves everyone, and everyone loves her right back. The children love her because she is lots of fun. Their parents love her because she can cure children of absolutely any bad habit...

Categorized as:
low-fantasy magical-realism 20th-century audiobook book children children-books classics
The Seventh Horse and Other Tales by Leonora Carrington
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars
· 6 ratings
This collection of Carrington's fiction, the most comprehensive so far, includes a novella and 18 short stories written between the late 1930s and the early '70s in French, Spanish and English. All these tales take place in fantastic, eerie landscapes and are narrated in surreal, stylized voices. Carrington (House of Fear , etc...

Categorized as:
literary-fiction postmodernism 20th-century adult animals anthologies cosmic-horror female-author
The Forgotten Witch by Jessica Dodge
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars
· 6 ratings
Helen Kent never dares to step outside her comfort zone. She lives a lonely mundane life in the city, grinding through her uninspiring marketing job. That is, until a spontaneous online purchase brings her to the little bay town of Oban, Scotland, where a 500-year-old cottage full of secrets and stories awaits her...

Categorized as:
magical-realism low-fantasy fantasy fiction witches-wizards urban-fantasy dark-fantasy horror
Amy's Eyes by Richard Kennedy, Richard Egielski
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars
· 8 ratings
A girl who has changed into a doll and a doll who has changed into a sea captain sail the pirate-ridden high seas with a crew of Mother Goose animals, in search of gold treasure...

Categorized as:
low-fantasy magical-realism 20th-century book children children-books disability fiction
The Little King December by Axel Hacke
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars
· 8 ratings
December II, the little pot-bellied king, is about three inches tall and so fat that he can't button up his tiny red velvet coat. He lives in a tiny room in a hole in the wall, its shelves piled high with countless colourful boxes, full of his dreams. And when you're with him you see things your eyes won't normally see...

Categorized as:
low-fantasy magical-realism 20th-century aging book children children-books fiction
The Circular Ruins by Jorge Luis Borges
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars
· 12 ratings
"The Circular Ruins"/"Las ruinas circulares") first published in the literary journal Sur in December 1940, it was included in the 1941 collection The Garden of Forking Paths (Spanish: El jardín de senderos que se bifurcan) and the 1944 collection Ficciones. It was first published in English in View (Series V, No. 6 1946), translated by Paul Bowles...

Categorized as:
magical-realism low-fantasy fiction fantasy classics philosophy 20th-century university
The Book of Devices by İhsan Oktay Anar
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars
· 16 ratings
"He had sought to be the agent of all forces and actions on the Earth, and thus, just as he had transformed iron ingot into a music box, so had he strived to transform the Earth and all it contained into a machine." Ihsan Oktay Anar's 1996 novella, "The Book of Devices," is a skeleton key to the ever-inventive author's fictional world set in the Ottoman times...

Categorized as:
literary-fiction 20th-century adult book fiction historical historical-fiction fantasy
The Hidden Palace by Helene Wecker
Rated: 4.15 of 5 stars
· 36 ratings
Chava is a golem, a woman made of clay, able to hear the thoughts and longings of the people around her and compelled by her nature to help them. Ahmad is a jinni, a perpetually restless and free-spirited creature of fire, imprisoned in the shape of a man...

Categorized as:
literary-fiction low-fantasy magical-realism 20th-century 21st-century action-adventure adult alternate-history
Dictionary of the Khazars by Milorad Pavić
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars
· 29 ratings
A national bestseller, Dictionary of the Khazars was cited by The New York Times Book Review as one of the best books of the year...

Categorized as:
literary-fiction low-fantasy magical-realism postmodernism 20th-century action-adventure adult book
Dreamtigers by Jorge Luis Borges
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars
· 27 ratings
Dreamtigers has been heralded as one of the literary masterpieces of the twentieth century by Mortimer J. Adler, editor of Great Books of the Western World. It has been acknowledged by its author as his most personal work. Composed of poems, parables, and stories, sketches and apocryphal quotations, Dreamtigers at first glance appears to be a sampleralbeit a dazzling oneof the master's work...

Categorized as:
literary-fiction low-fantasy magical-realism postmodernism 20th-century adult anthologies classics
The Passion by Jeanette Winterson
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars
· 38 ratings
Jeanette Winterson’s novels have established her as one of the most important young writers in world literature. The Passion is perhaps her most highly acclaimed work, a modern classic that confirms her special claim on the novel...

Categorized as:
literary-fiction magical-realism postmodernism 20th-century adult audiobook book classics
The Secrets Of Dr Taverner (Ash Tree Press Occult Detectives Library) by Dion Fortune
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars
· 6 ratings
Of the many authors who have turned their hands to the creation of 'supernatural sleuths', few have been so colourful, and as contradictory, as Dion Fortune...

Categorized as:
low-fantasy magical-realism 20th-century adult anthologies dark-fantasy fiction historical
Flanders by Patricia Anthony
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars
· 6 ratings
"A harrowing and beautiful novel, demonstrating — again — that Patricia Anthony is one of our great writers." — Publishers WeeklyIn this gritty look at World War I's trench warfare, a young American sharpshooter ventures into no man's land each night to be ready by daybreak for the grim business of slaying record numbers of enemies...

Categorized as:
literary-fiction magical-realism 20th-century adult book female-author fiction ghosts
La Maravilla by Alfredo Véa
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars
· 6 ratings
"Buckeye Road wasn't much of a town, just a place where a pocked and pitted road met an invisible street....It was less that unincorporated, it was unknown..."Yet it is here in the desert outside the Phoenix city limits that Alfredo Vea, Jr., finds a world of marvels spilling out of the adobe homes, tar-paper shacks, rusted Cadillacs, and battered trailers that are otherwise known as "Buckeye...

Categorized as:
literary-fiction magical-realism 20th-century adult book coming-of-age fiction hispanic
The Woman Who Had Two Navels and Tales of the Tropical Gothic by Nick Joaquín, Gina Apostol
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars
· 6 ratings
Nick Joaquin is widely considered one of the greatest Filipino writers, but he has remained little-known outside his home country despite writing in English. With the post-colonial sensibilities of Junot Diaz, Teju Cole, and Jhumpa Lahiri and an ironic perspective of colonial history resonant with Marques and Llosa, Joaquin is a long-neglected writer ready to join the ranks of the world classics...

Categorized as:
literary-fiction magical-realism 20th-century adult anthologies classics fiction gothic
The Bookshop of Dust and Dreams by Mindy Thompson
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars
· 7 ratings
This moving story about a magical bookstore explores the way war can shape a family and is perfect for book lovers everywhere, especially fans of Pages & Co., Pax, and Wolf Hollow.It's 1944 Sutton, NY, and Poppy's family owns and runs, Rhyme and Reason, a magical bookshop that caters to people from all different places and time periods...

Categorized as:
low-fantasy magical-realism 20th-century action-adventure book children children-books death
Fancies and Goodnights by John Collier, Ray Bradbury
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars
· 10 ratings
John Collier's edgy, sardonic tales are works of rare wit, curious insight, and scary implication. They stand out as one of the pinnacles in the critically neglected but perennially popular tradition of weird writing that includes E.T.A. Hoffmann and Charles Dickens as well as more recent masters like Jorge Luis Borges and Roald Dahl...

Categorized as:
literary-fiction low-fantasy magical-realism 20th-century adult anthologies classics fiction
The Greatest Gift by Philip Van Doren Stern
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars
· 14 ratings
When he found himself unable to find a publisher for his story, author Philip Van Doren Stern printed up copies of the “The Greatest Gift” and gave them out as Christmas cards in 1943. Eventually, the story came to the attention of director Frank Capra, who explained later, “It was the story I had been looking for all my life! A good man, ambitious...

Categorized as:
literary-fiction low-fantasy magical-realism 20th-century adult audiobook book christian
The Complete Stories of Leonora Carrington by Leonora Carrington
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars
· 14 ratings
Surrealist writer and painter Leonora Carrington (1917-2011) was a master of the macabre, of gorgeous tableaus, biting satire, roguish comedy, and brilliant, effortless flights of the imagination. Nowhere are these qualities more ingeniously brought together than in the works of short fiction she wrote throughout her life...

Categorized as:
literary-fiction low-fantasy magical-realism 20th-century adult anthologies audiobook classics
The Garden of Time by J.G. Ballard
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars
· 14 ratings
...

Categorized as:
literary-fiction magical-realism low-fantasy classics fantasy fiction dystopia historical-fiction
Mary Poppins in the Park by P.L. Travers
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars
· 18 ratings
By P.L. Travers, the author featured in the major motion picture, Saving Mr. Banks. From the moment Mary Poppins arrives at Number Seventeen Cherry-Tree Lane, everyday life at the Banks house is forever changed. This classic series tells the story of the world's most beloved nanny, who brings enchantment and excitement with her everywhere she goes...

Categorized as:
literary-fiction low-fantasy magical-realism 20th-century action-adventure audiobook book children
The Wonderful Adventures of Nils by Selma Lagerlöf
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars
· 24 ratings
Winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1909 — the first woman to be so honored — Swedish novelist Selma Lagerlöf (1858–1940) was a gifted storyteller whose writings were often tinged with the supernatural and rooted in the sagas and legends of her homeland...

Categorized as:
literary-fiction low-fantasy magical-realism 20th-century action-adventure animals audiobook book
Carter Beats the Devil by Glen David Gold
Rated: 4.09 of 5 stars
· 35 ratings
Charles Carter—a.k.a. Carter the Great—is a young master performer whose skill as an illusionist exceeds even that of the great Houdini. But nothing in his career has prepared Carter for the greatest stunt of all, which stars none other than President Warren G. Harding and which could end up costing Carter the reputation he has worked so hard to create...

Categorized as:
literary-fiction magical-realism 20th-century 21st-century action-adventure adult alternate-history book
The Street of Crocodiles by Bruno Schulz, Mikolaj Dutsch
Rated: 4.09 of 5 stars
· 33 ratings
The Street of Crocodiles in the Polish city of Drogobych is a street of memories and dreams where recollections of Bruno Schulz's uncommon boyhood and of the eerie side of his merchant family's life are evoked in a startling blend of the real and the fantastic...

Categorized as:
literary-fiction low-fantasy magical-realism 20th-century action-adventure adult anthologies audiobook
Bees in June by Elizabeth Bass Parman
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars
· 8 ratings
Set against the optimism and excitement of the first moon landing in the summer of 1969, a feat many said was impossible, one woman struggles to achieve something she thinks is impossible--living a happy and fulfilling life.Rennie King's world isn't at all what she expected when she married the hotshot baseball player from her small town of Spark, Tennessee...

Categorized as:
magical-realism literary-fiction romance historical-fiction audiobook fiction family fantasy
The Metamorphosis, In the Penal Colony, and Other Stories: The Great Short Works of Franz Kafka by Franz Kafka, Anne Rice
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars
· 36 ratings
Translated by PEN translation award-winner Joachim Neugroschel, The Metamorphosis, In the Penal Colony, and Other Stories has garnered critical acclaim and is widely recognized as the preeminent English-language anthology of Kafka's stories. These translations illuminate one of this century's most controversial writers and have made Kafka's work accessible to a whole new generation...

Categorized as:
literary-fiction low-fantasy magical-realism 20th-century adult anthologies audiobook classics
The Borrowers by Mary Norton
Rated: 4.03 of 5 stars
· 65 ratings
Beneath the kitchen floor is the world of the Borrowers -- Pod and Homily Clock and their daughter, Arrietty. In their tiny home, matchboxes double as roomy dressers and postage stamps hang on the walls like paintings. Whatever the Clocks need they simply "borrow" from the "human beans" who live above them. It's a comfortable life, but boring if you're a kid...

Categorized as:
literary-fiction low-fantasy magical-realism 20th-century action-adventure audiobook book children
Mirror in the Mirror by Michael Ende
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars
· 23 ratings
Mirror in the Mirror: A Labyrinth is a collection of surreal short stories by Michael Ende originally published in 1984. All stories in the book have their own protagonists, but are related to each other by the use of literary leitmotivs. None of the stories has its own title...

Categorized as:
low-fantasy magical-realism 20th-century adult book fiction historical suspense
The Book of Imaginary Beings by Jorge Luis Borges, Margarita Guerrero
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars
· 33 ratings
In a perfect pairing of talent, this volume blends twenty illustrations by Peter S.' with Jorge Luis Borges' 1957 compilation of 116 "strange creatures conceived through time and space by the human imagination," from dragons and centaurs to Lewis Carroll's Cheshire Cat and the Morlocks of H. G. Wells' The Time Machine...

Categorized as:
literary-fiction low-fantasy magical-realism 20th-century adult animals anthologies classics
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang by Ian Fleming, John Burningham
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars
· 24 ratings
When an inventor brings home an old racing car and rebuilds it, the family gets more than they counted on--because the car has some hidden talents of her own. The family's jaunt to France gets the children kidnapped and involved in a counterfeiting plot..

Categorized as:
literary-fiction low-fantasy magical-realism 20th-century action-adventure audiobook book children
The Song of Seven by Tonke Dragt
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars
· 16 ratings
At the end of every schoolday, new teacher Mr Van der Steg entertains his pupils with tall tales of incredible events, which he claims really happened to him - involving hungry lions and haunted castles, shipwrecks and desert islands...

Categorized as:
low-fantasy magical-realism 20th-century action-adventure audiobook book children children-books
Life and Death are Wearing Me Out by Mo Yan
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars
· 16 ratings
Ximen Nao, a landowner known for his generosity and kindness to his peasants, is not only stripped of his land and worldly possessions in Mao's Land Reform Movement of 1948, but is cruelly executed, despite his protestations of innocence. He goes to Hell, where Lord Yama, king of the underworld, has Ximen Nao tortured endlessly, trying to make him admit his guilt, to no avail...

Categorized as:
literary-fiction magical-realism 20th-century 21st-century action-adventure adult animals audiobook
Damascus Nights by Rafik Schami
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars
· 14 ratings
Rafik Schami's award-winning novel. In the classical Arab tradition of tale-telling, here is a magical book that celebrates the power of storytelling, delightfully transformed for modern sensibilities by an award-winning author. The time is present-day Damascus, and Salim the coachman, the city's most famous storyteller, is mysteriously struck dumb...

Categorized as:
literary-fiction magical-realism 20th-century action-adventure adult book classics fiction
Sessanta racconti by Dino Buzzati
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars
· 14 ratings
Il mondo di Dino Buzzati è un mondo magico, misterioso, molto attraente per il lettore che, incuriosito, giunge al termine della lettura con il fiato sospeso, nell’attesa di conoscere quell’unica verità che capovolge tutto ciò che fino a quel momento sembrava essere vero...

Categorized as:
magical-realism low-fantasy europe south-europe italy fiction classics fantasy
Portrait of Jennie by Robert Nathan, Peter S. Beagle
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars
· 12 ratings
Who was she? Where had she come from?Was Jennie a dream, a memory, a lovely ghost from the past? Or had she stepped from anther world into this? Eben Adams could only guess at the answer. But he understood that Jennie, because she dared to love him, had fused past and present into the delightful delicate magic of "now...

Categorized as:
literary-fiction magical-realism 20th-century audiobook book classics fiction ghosts
Above Us Only Sky by Michele Young-Stone
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars
· 10 ratings
From the author of The Handbook for Lightning Strike Survivors, which Library Journal called, “ripe for Oprah or fans of Elizabeth Berg or Anne Tyler,” comes a magical novel about a family of women separated by oceans, generations, and war, but connected by something much greater—the gift of wings.On March 29, 1973, Prudence Eleanor Vilkas was born with a pair of wings molded to her back...

Categorized as:
literary-fiction magical-realism 20th-century action-adventure audiobook book coming-of-age family

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