Books like 'La Maravilla'
Readers who enjoyed La Maravilla by Alfredo Véa also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
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The Library of Babel by Jorge Luis Borges, Erik Desmazieres
Rated: 4.39 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsJorge 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... -
The Aleph by Jorge Luis Borges
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsTranslation to English of the Spanish short story "El Aleph", originally published in 1945...Categorized as:
magical-realism literary-fiction university fiction classics fantasy 20th-century anthologies -
The Book of Fantasy by Jorge Luis Borges, Silvina Ocampo
Rated: 4.36 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThe Book of Fantasy began one night when three friends fell to talking about fantasies and ghost stories...Categorized as:
literary-fiction magical-realism 20th-century adult anthologies classics fiction historical -
This I Know by Eldonna Edwards
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 17 ratingsSet 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:
coming-of-age historical-fiction literary-fiction magical-realism 20th-century audiobook book cults -
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The Murmur of Bees by Sofía Segovia
Rated: 4.26 of 5 stars · 44 ratingsFrom a beguiling voice in Mexican fiction comes an astonishing novel—her first to be translated into English—about a mysterious child with the power to change a family’s history in a country on the verge of revolution.From the day that old Nana Reja found a baby abandoned under a bridge, the life of a small Mexican town forever changed... -
In the Land of Armadillos: Stories by Helen Maryles Shankman
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsA 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... -
Aztec by Gary Jennings
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 25 ratingsAztec is the extraordinary story of the last and greatest native civilization of North America... -
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... -
The Garden of the Departed Cats by Bilge Karasu
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsIn 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:
historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century adult book fiction historical lgbtq -
The Lightning Queen by Laura Resau
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsWhen Esma and her caravan come to Teo's Oaxacan village in the mid-1900's, she sparks new ideas and life. Can the two friends make their impossible fortune come true and save each other when no one else can? Historical fiction meets magical realism in this award-winning middle-grade novel by acclaimed author Laura Resau... -
People of the Mist by Kathleen O'Neal Gear, W. Michael Gear
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsWith People of the Mist, bestselling authors W. Michael Gear and Kathleen O'Neal Gear take us to the Chesapeake Bay of six hundred years ago, when the unprovoked and brutal murder of a young woman on the eve of her wedding threatens to turn the entire Algonquin Nation against itself in a brutal war that could destroy them as a people...Categorized as:
historical-fiction indigenous-mc poc-mc 20th-century adult ancient-civilization book female-author -
The Most Precious of Cargoes by Jean-Claude Grumberg
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsSet during the height of World War II, a powerful and unsettling tale about a woodcutter and his wife, who finds a mysterious parcel thrown from a passing train.Once upon a time in an enormous forest lived a woodcutter and his wife. The woodcutter is very poor and a war rages around them, making it difficult for them to put food on the table. Yet every night, his wife prays for a child...Categorized as:
historical-fiction magical-realism 20th-century adult book fiction historical politics -
A Single Swallow by Zhang Ling
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThe 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... -
O'Sullivan Stew by Hudson Talbott
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsSomeone has stolen the witch of Crookhaven's horse, and there will be no peace in the village until it is returned. So bold, brassy Kate O'Sullivan takes matters into her own hands. But instead of saving the day, she manages to land herself--and her family--in trouble with the king. So Kate sets out to save their hides the only way she knows how--with a good story... -
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One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 53 ratingsProbably García Márquez finest and most famous work. One Hundred Years of Solitude tells the story of the rise and fall, birth and death of a mythical town of Macondo through the history of the Buendia family. Inventive, amusing, magnetic, sad, alive with unforgettable men and women, and with a truth and understanding that strike the soul... -
The Moonlit Cage by Linda Holeman
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsDary�'s simple life in mid-nineteenth-century Afghanistan is torn apart when a hateful curse by a jealous tribeswoman leaves her an outcast in her small Muslim village...Categorized as:
coming-of-age historical-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult book female-author 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 university fiction fantasy classics philosophy 20th-century low-fantasy -
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:
historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century adult book fiction historical fantasy -
The Mysterious Stranger by Mark Twain
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsrelates the adventures of Satan, the sinless nephew of the biblical Satan, in Eseldorf, an Austrian village in the year 1702. Twain wrote this version between November 1897 and September 1900. "Eseldorf" is German for "Assville" or "Donkeytown"... -
People of the Sea by W. Michael Gear, Kathleen O'Neal Gear
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsA spellbinding tale of life and love, death and adventure, in North America eleven thousand years ago, when mammoths roamed the continent. Award-winning archaeologists Michael and Kathleen Gear, using the best archaeological information, have created a stunning vision of our pre-history, and of the men and women who lived in this rapidly changing world... -
Dreamtigers by Jorge Luis Borges
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 27 ratingsDreamtigers 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 magical-realism poc-mc 20th-century adult anthologies classics fiction -
The Passion by Jeanette Winterson
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 38 ratingsJeanette 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:
historical-fiction literary-fiction magical-realism university 20th-century adult audiobook book -
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:
historical-fiction literary-fiction magical-realism 20th-century adult book female-author fiction -
The Woman Who Had Two Navels and Tales of the Tropical Gothic by Nick Joaquín, Gina Apostol
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsNick 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... -
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Fancies and Goodnights by John Collier, Ray Bradbury
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsJohn 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:
humor literary-fiction magical-realism 20th-century adult anthologies classics fiction -
The Garden of Time by J.G. Ballard
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratings...Categorized as:
literary-fiction historical-fiction magical-realism classics fantasy fiction dystopia politics -
A Council of Dolls by Mona Susan Power, Susan Power
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThe long-awaited, profoundly moving, and unforgettable new novel from PEN Award–winning Native American author Mona Susan Power, spanning three generations of Yanktonai Dakota women from the 19th century to the present day... -
Mary Poppins in the Park by P.L. Travers
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsBy 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:
coming-of-age humor literary-fiction magical-realism 20th-century action-adventure audiobook book -
Señor Vivo and the Coca Lord by Louis de Bernières
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsIn this iridescent gem of a novel, Louis de Bernieres returns to the territory he mapped so well in The War of Don Emmanuel's Nether Parts, a South American country of resplendent eccentricity, gargantuan corruption, and terrifying violence, where the ordinary machinery of government has rusted and the only thing that works is magic...Categorized as:
historical-fiction humor literary-fiction magical-realism 20th-century action-adventure adult book -
Arabian Nights and Days by Naguib Mahfouz
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 29 ratingsA renowned Nobel Prize-winning novelist refashions the classic tales of Scheherazade in his own imaginative, spellbinding style. Here are genies and flying carpets, Aladdin and Sinbad, Ali Baba, and many other familiar stories, made new by the magical pen of the acknowledged dean of Arabic letters... -
Carter Beats the Devil by Glen David Gold
Rated: 4.09 of 5 stars · 35 ratingsCharles 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... -
The Street of Crocodiles by Bruno Schulz, Mikolaj Dutsch
Rated: 4.09 of 5 stars · 33 ratingsThe 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... -
Mules And Men by Zora Neale Hurston
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 29 ratingsMules and Men is a treasury of black America's folklore as collected by a famous storyteller and anthropologist who grew up hearing the songs and sermons, sayings and tall tales that have formed an oral history of the South since the time of slavery...Categorized as:
historical-fiction humor literary-fiction poc-mc university 20th-century adult animals -
People of the River by W. Michael Gear, Kathleen O'Neal Gear
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsA gripping new saga of pre-historic America that takes us to the Mississippi Valley and the tribe known as the Mound builders. It is a time of troubles. In Cahokia, the corn crop is failing again and a warchief--and the warrior woman he may never possess--are disgusted by their Chief's lust for tribute. Now even the gods have turned their faces, closing the underworld to the seers... -
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Bees in June by Elizabeth Bass Parman
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsSet 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:
historical-fiction magical-realism literary-fiction romance audiobook fiction family fantasy -
The Borrowers by Mary Norton
Rated: 4.03 of 5 stars · 65 ratingsBeneath 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... -
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang by Ian Fleming, John Burningham
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsWhen 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.. -
I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem by Maryse Condé, Angela Y. Davis
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 18 ratings"Stunning... Maryse Condé's imaginative subversion of historical records forms a critique of contemporary American society and its ingrained racism and sexism." —THE BOSTON SUNDAY GLOBEAt the age of seven, Tituba watched as her mother was hanged for daring to wound a plantation owner who tried to rape her...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction magical-realism poc-mc university 20th-century adult audiobook -
Life and Death are Wearing Me Out by Mo Yan
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsXimen 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... -
Damascus Nights by Rafik Schami
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsRafik 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... -
Above Us Only Sky by Michele Young-Stone
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsFrom 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... -
The Baron in the Trees by Italo Calvino
Rated: 4.02 of 5 stars · 44 ratingsA landmark new translation of a Calvino classic, a whimsical, spirited novel that imagines a life lived entirely on its own terms Cosimo di Rondó, a young Italian nobleman of the eighteenth century, rebels against his parents by climbing into the trees and remaining there for the rest of his life... -
The Song of the Blue Bottle Tree by India Hayford
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsDisguised by years in exile and a name she found on a gravestone, an unconventional young woman returns to her childhood home in rural 1967 Arkansas in this hauntingly visceral Southern tale of desperate choices, found family, folk magic and noisy ghosts. Genevieve Charbonneau talks to ghosts and has a special relationship with rattlesnakes... -
Once and Forever: The Tales of Kenji Miyazawa by Kenji Miyazawa
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsThe magic of Miyazawa's tales reaches out to people of all ages and lands. The sophisticated reader can savor them consciously as literature, while the younger reader can delight in them as imaginative stories that comment on and deepen his own experience. The underlying themes are universal, but the forms and treatment can be appreciated at many levels and vary subtly from piece to piece...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction magical-realism 20th-century adult animals anthologies classics -
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The Book Cat by Polly Faber
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThis is a classic wartime tale of a (real!) cat who made his home at the Faber offices and decided he'd never leave.'This time we need to get you - get all of the kittens, safe out of London,' said Morgan decisively....'To have a chance for a better life, well, let's just say, I've got an idea... -
Pilgermann by Russell Hoban
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsHe climbs a ladder to reach another man's wife and gives himself up to her beauty, but then Pilgermann descends into a mob of peasants inspired by the Pope to shed the blood of Jews. Alone on the cobblestones, he cries out to Israel, to the Lord his God, to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. He is answered instead by Jesus Christ...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction magical-realism 20th-century adult book fiction historical -
Mandelbrot the Magnificent by Liz Ziemska
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsLiz Ziemska has fashioned a beautiful story about one famous survivor and the magic and mathematics he's brought to the world...Categorized as:
historical-fiction magical-realism 20th-century adult alternate-history book female-author fiction -
Mirror Girls by Kelly McWilliams, Not Yet Available
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA thrilling gothic horror novel about biracial twin sisters separated at birth, perfect for fans of Lovecraft Country and The Vanishing Half As infants, twin sisters Charlie Yates and Magnolia Heathwood were secretly separated after the brutal lynching of their parents, who died for loving across the color line...Categorized as:
historical-fiction magical-realism poc-mc 20th-century audiobook book family fiction -
Damascus Nights by Rafik Schami
Rated: 4.05 of 5 stars · 21 ratingsIn 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... -
Mary Poppins Comes Back by P.L. Travers
Rated: 3.96 of 5 stars · 25 ratings'Pulled down from the clouds at the end of a kite string, Mary Poppins is back. In Mary’s care, the Banks children meet the King of the Castle and the Dirty Rascal, visit the upside-down world of Mr. Turvy and his bride, Miss Topsy, and spend a breathless afternoon above the park, dangling from a clutch of balloons...
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