Books like 'Paradise Block'
Readers who enjoyed Paradise Block by Alice Ash also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
contemporary dark magical-realism literary-fiction
-
Delilah: An Under Your Scars Novella by Ariel N. Anderson
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsSeventeen years after the events in Under Your Scars, Caroline makes her yearly visit to Meridian City and is taken on a heartbreaking and bittersweet journey that gives her something she's been searching for her entire closure.This is a sequel novella to Under Your A Dark Romance Novel, and the series must be read in order...Categorized as:
dark literary-fiction romance contemporary fiction female-mc anthologies action-adventure -
![Arising Son: Part One: The Guardians Of The Temple Saga by Marie Montine]()
Arising Son: Part One: The Guardians Of The Temple Saga by Marie Montine
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsRyan is successful working independently as a doctor's assistant until his world comes crashing down on him: protecting the woman he's falling for, he discovers he has strength unlike a normal human and a great thirst...for blood.He confronts his mother, Cassandra, on who he really is... -
![All Fires the Fire by Julio Cortázar]()
All Fires the Fire by Julio Cortázar
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 32 ratingsCortazar's stories are like small time pieces, where each polished part moves relentlessly on its own particular path, exercising a crucial and perpetual influence on the mechanism as a whole...Categorized as:
literary-fiction magical-realism 20th-century adult anthologies classics contemporary fiction -
![Han cantado bingo by Lana Corujo]()
Han cantado bingo by Lana Corujo
Rated: 4.44 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsTodo empieza con un algunas noches, en los diez minutos suspendidos antes de que Abuela regrese del bingo, dos hermanas salen a escondidas por la puerta de atrás hasta El Ahorcado —un volcán redondo como una panza bocarriba—, cuentan hasta tres y corren de vuelta sin mirar atrás...Categorized as:
magical-realism literary-fiction fiction contemporary female-author coming-of-age family book -
-
![Nostalgia by Mircea Cărtărescu]()
Nostalgia by Mircea Cărtărescu
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsMircea Cartarescu, born in 1956, is one of Romania's leading novelists and poets...Categorized as:
literary-fiction magical-realism 20th-century adult book classics contemporary fiction -
![Your Absence is Darkness by Jón Kalman Stefánsson]()
Your Absence is Darkness by Jón Kalman Stefánsson
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsA spellbinding saga about the inhabitants and inheritors of one rural community, by one of Iceland's most beloved novelists. A man comes to awareness in a church in rural Iceland, not knowing why he’s there or how he arrived... -
![Petrovi u gripu i oko njega by Aleksei Salnikov, Алексей Сальников]()
Petrovi u gripu i oko njega by Aleksei Salnikov, Алексей Сальников
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsAleksej Saljnikov rođen je 7. avgusta 1978. u gradu Tartu, Estonija), od 1984. živeo je na Uralu, a od 2005. godine u Jekaterinburgu, gde se i odvija radnja njegovog romana.Debitovao je kao pesnik. Širom Rusije postao je poznat posle objavljivanja romana Petrovi u gripu i oko njega, koji je od žirija kritike dobio književnu nagradu NOS; dobitnik je i nagrade Nacionalni bestseler (2018)...Categorized as:
literary-fiction magical-realism 21st-century action-adventure adult audiobook book contemporary -
![Three Scenarios In Which Hana Sasaki Grows A Tail by Kelly Luce]()
Three Scenarios In Which Hana Sasaki Grows A Tail by Kelly Luce
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThree Scenarios in Which Hana Sasaki Grows a Tail is a debut collection of stories from Kelly Luce. Hana Sasaki will introduce you to many things—among them, an oracular toaster, a woman who grows a tail, and an extraordinary sex-change operation. Set in Japan, these stories tip into the fantastical, plumb the power of memory, and measure the human capacity to love... -
![Mourning Grey: Part Two by Marie Montine]()
Mourning Grey: Part Two by Marie Montine
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsHaving joined Lharkin's family of Kins and becoming a vampire, Cassandra believed she was getting closer to Lharkin. When they both learn the startling truth behind both of their pasts, Lharkin becomes more distant... -
![Mourning Grey: Part Three The Guardians Of The Temple Saga by Marie Montine]()
Mourning Grey: Part Three The Guardians Of The Temple Saga by Marie Montine
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsHaving reached the land belonging to the ancient Empians, Cassandra's visions become stronger just as does her powers. Being the prophised woman to end the last Empian, she is conflicted as she has also grown close Lharkin's family... -
![Poor Deer by Claire Oshetsky]()
Poor Deer by Claire Oshetsky
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA wondrous, tender novel about a young girl grappling with her role in a tragic loss—and attempting to reshape the narrative of her life—from PEN/Faulkner Award nominee Claire OshetskyMargaret Murphy is a weaver of fantastic tales, growing up in a world where the truth is too much for one little girl to endure. Her first memory is of the day her friend Agnes died.No one blames Margaret... -
![Einstein's Beach House by Jacob M. Appel]()
Einstein's Beach House by Jacob M. Appel
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsA couple adopts a depressed hedgehog; a stranger shows up, claiming to be the father of a girl's imaginary friend; a woman kidnaps her ex-husband's turtle; a family is evicted from their home, but was it ever really theirs? Heartbreaking and hilarious, the eight stories of Einstein's Beach House examine how we deceive ourselves and others, all to arrive at something far more real... -
![A River Called Time by Mia Couto]()
A River Called Time by Mia Couto
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratings"Extraordinary vision . . . his prose is suffused with striking images."—The Washington Post"To read Mia Couto is to encounter a peculiarly African sensibility, a writer of fluid, fragmentary narratives . . . remarkable... -
![The Early Stories, 1953-1975 by John Updike]()
The Early Stories, 1953-1975 by John Updike
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsGathering together almost all the short fiction that John Updike published between 1953 and 1975, this collection opens with Updike's autobiographical stories about a young boy growing up during the Depression in a small Pennsylvania town. There follows tales of life away from home, student days, early marriage and young families, and finally Updike's experimental stories on 'The Single Life'...Categorized as:
literary-fiction magical-realism adult anthologies classics contemporary fiction humor -
-
![Oração para Desaparecer by Socorro Acioli]()
Oração para Desaparecer by Socorro Acioli
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsPrimeiro romance de Socorro Acioli após A cabeça do santo, Oração para Desaparecer conta a história de uma mulher que, sem lembrança nenhuma de seu passado, precisa reconstruir a vida em um lugar completamente desconhecido, apenas com a língua portuguesa como porto seguro.Cida, uma mulher sem identidade nem memória, reconstrói pouco a pouco uma nova vida em um lugar completamente desconhecido...Categorized as:
magical-realism literary-fiction romance fiction fantasy contemporary audiobook book -
![Portable Childhoods by Ellen Klages, Neil Gaiman]()
Portable Childhoods by Ellen Klages, Neil Gaiman
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsEmerging from a unique and powerful voice, this innovative collection offers a tantalizing glimpse of what lies hidden just beyond the ordinary, skirting the border between childhood and adulthood...Categorized as:
literary-fiction magical-realism anthologies contemporary fiction lgbtq low-fantasy magic -
![Safe as Houses by Marie-Helene Bertino]()
Safe as Houses by Marie-Helene Bertino
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsSafe as Houses, the debut story collection of Marie-Helene Bertino, proves that not all homes are shelters. The titular story revolves around an aging English professor who, mourning the loss of his wife, robs other people's homes of their sentimental knick-knacks. In "Free Ham," a young dropout wins a ham after her house burns down and refuses to accept it...Categorized as:
literary-fiction magical-realism adult anthologies contemporary female-author female-mc fiction -
![A Crown of Feathers by Isaac Bashevis Singer]()
A Crown of Feathers by Isaac Bashevis Singer
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratings"Stories by Isaac Bashevis Singer"--Cover... -
![The Essential Clive Barker: Selected Fiction by Clive Barker, Armistead Maupin]()
The Essential Clive Barker: Selected Fiction by Clive Barker, Armistead Maupin
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratings"I wonder if the reverse is not also in some way true. That the artist is constantly working on anelaborate and fantasticated self-portrait, but at the end has drawn, unbeknownst, a picture of the world... -
![A Thousand Paper Birds by Tor Udall]()
A Thousand Paper Birds by Tor Udall
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsAn intimate portrait of five inextricably linked lives, spanning one calendar year at Kew Gardens in London. Nothing is set in stone. A bird can be refolded into a boat, a fish, a kimono, or any other extravagant vision. At other times it aches to return to its original folds. The paper begins to fray. It tires, rebels... -
![Czarne oceany by Jacek Dukaj]()
Czarne oceany by Jacek Dukaj
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsDukaj od nowa skonfigurował klasyczną twardą fantastykę naukową.Mroczna, sugestywna, boleśnie realistyczna wizja społeczeństwa posthumanistycznego.Czarne oceany – przerażająca otchłań myśli ludzkiej.Nicolas Hunt kieruje tajnym projektem rządowym, badającym komercyjne zastosowania telepatii. Rezultaty tych badań zmienią nieodwracalnie nie tylko jego życie, ale także losy całego świata... -
![Dear Shameless Death by Latife Tekin]()
Dear Shameless Death by Latife Tekin
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsA strange magical story of a young girl growing up in modern Turkey, from her birth in a small rural village haunted by fairies and demons to hertraumatic move to the big city. It concentrates on the daughter's struggle gainst her overbearing mother and is both fantastic and hallucinatory...Categorized as:
literary-fiction magical-realism 20th-century adult book contemporary female-author fiction -
![Willful Creatures by Aimee Bender]()
Willful Creatures by Aimee Bender
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 18 ratings"Contemporary fairy tales, cushioned by goofy humor and a deep tenderness for her characters, that aren't always as dark or as sinister as they initially appear." --The New York Times Book Review Aimee Bender s Willful Creatures conjures a fantastical world in which authentic love blooms...Categorized as:
dark literary-fiction magical-realism 21st-century adult anthologies comedy contemporary -
![The Lantern of Lost Memories by Sanaka Hiiragi]()
The Lantern of Lost Memories by Sanaka Hiiragi
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsOne photograph, one treasured memory, one chance to go back . . . In a cosy photography studio in the mountains between this world and the next, someone is waking up as if from a dream. A kind man will hand them a hot cup of tea and gently explain that, having reached the end of their life, they have one final task...Categorized as:
magical-realism literary-fiction fiction fantasy contemporary audiobook cozy low-fantasy -
-
![Angels of the Universe by Einar Már Guðmundsson]()
Angels of the Universe by Einar Már Guðmundsson
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsBorn on the day Iceland joined NATO, this novel's unstable narrator worries this and other incidental phenomena into a highly complex, hilarious, and tragic cosmology. More interested in David Bowie and the Beatles than the Nordic sagas that shape the lives of the working-class peoples of Reykjavik, Paul retreats into his own fantastic, schizophrenic, painful world... -
![Missing Kissinger by Etgar Keret]()
Missing Kissinger by Etgar Keret
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsA magician tries to pull a rabbit out of a hat, but takes out only its head; a guy brings a girl home with him for the first time only to find that his best friend has pissed on his doorstep; a young man graduates from Magician School but soon discovers that he can't do everything; two drunk students do battle with a pavement and win; someone has a mother and a girlfriend who hate each other's...Categorized as:
literary-fiction magical-realism adult anthologies comedy contemporary fiction humor -
![The View from the Seventh Layer by Kevin Brockmeier]()
The View from the Seventh Layer by Kevin Brockmeier
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 13 ratingsKevin Brockmeier--award -winning author of The Brief History of the Dead--has been widely praised for the richness of his imagination, the lyrical grace and playfulness of his language, and the empathic emotional complexity of his storytelling. And this dazzling collection once again affirms his place as one of the most creative and compassionate writers of his generation...Categorized as:
literary-fiction magical-realism anthologies audiobook contemporary fiction low-fantasy magic -
![The Knife Thrower and Other Stories by Steven Millhauser]()
The Knife Thrower and Other Stories by Steven Millhauser
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsThe Knife Thrower introduces a series of distinctively Millhauserian worlds: tiny, fabulous, self-enclosed, like Fabergé eggs or like the short-story genre itself...Categorized as:
literary-fiction magical-realism adult anthologies audiobook contemporary fiction low-fantasy -
![Devil Is Fine by John Vercher]()
Devil Is Fine by John Vercher
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsFrom acclaimed novelist John Vercher, a profoundly moving novel of what it means to be a father, a son, a writer, and a biracial American fighting to reconcile the pastReeling from the sudden death of his teenage son, our narrator receives a letter from an he has just inherited a plot of land from his estranged grandfather...Categorized as:
magical-realism literary-fiction dark fiction audiobook fantasy historical-fiction contemporary -
![Ironopolis by Glen James Brown]()
Ironopolis by Glen James Brown
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsStranded on the outskirts of Ironopolis — nickname to a lost industrial Middlesbrough — the Burn Council Estate is about to be torn down to make way for regeneration. For the future .. -
![In the Penny Arcade by Steven Millhauser]()
In the Penny Arcade by Steven Millhauser
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsThe seven stories of In the Penny Arcade blend both the real and the fantastic in a seductive mix that illuminates the full range of Steven Millhauser's gifts, from 'August Eschenburg', the story of a clockmaker's son whose extraordinary talent for creating animated figures is lost on a world whose taste for the perverse and crude supersedes that of the refined and beautiful, to 'Cathay', a...Categorized as:
literary-fiction magical-realism 20th-century adult anthologies contemporary fiction horror -
![The Girl Who Couldn't Come by Joey Comeau]()
The Girl Who Couldn't Come by Joey Comeau
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsThis is a book of dirty stories. They are weird and fun and often bewildering, like sex itself... -
![May We Shed These Human Bodies by Amber Sparks]()
May We Shed These Human Bodies by Amber Sparks
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratings***Best Small Press Debut of 2012 -- The Atlantic Wire***May We Shed These Human Bodies peers through vast spaces and skies with the world's most powerful telescope to find humanity: wild and bright and hard as diamonds...Categorized as:
literary-fiction magical-realism adult anthologies contemporary female-author fiction fantasy -
![The Universe in Miniature in Miniature by Patrick Somerville]()
The Universe in Miniature in Miniature by Patrick Somerville
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsIn this genre-busting book from award-winning novelist Patrick Somerville characters, stories, and stray thoughts revolve around the "The Machine of Understanding Other People," the story of a Chicago man who is bequeathed a supernatural helmet that allows him to experience the inner worlds of those around him...Categorized as:
dark literary-fiction magical-realism adult anthologies apocalyptic contemporary dystopia -
-
![Melisande! What Are Dreams? by Hillel Halkin]()
Melisande! What Are Dreams? by Hillel Halkin
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsAn inspiring novel; a philosophical love story; a moving ode to a woman, as joyful and celebratory as it is elegiac. The narrator is a man in his forties, a scholar of ancient Greek philosophy known as Hoo. He has been given the nickname by Mellie, the woman he addresses in this book while exploring his memories of their years together and apart...Categorized as:
literary-fiction magical-realism adult book contemporary drama fiction historical-fiction -
![Quicksilver & Shadow, Volume 2: Collected Early Stories: Contemporary, Dark Fantasy, and Science Fiction Stories by Charles de Lint]()
Quicksilver & Shadow, Volume 2: Collected Early Stories: Contemporary, Dark Fantasy, and Science Fiction Stories by Charles de Lint
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsQuicksilver & Shadow is the second volume (of a projected three) of Charles de Lint's Collected Early Stories. At nearly 150,000 words it's even larger than volume one, A Handful of Coppers, and includes the very obscure 20,000 word novella, "Berlin," and its over 30,000 word counterpart "Death Leaves an Echo... -
![Weathercock by Glen Duncan]()
Weathercock by Glen Duncan
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThe confession of Dominic Francis Hood - Roman Catholic, sadist, conspirator to murder, witness to a miracle. His childhood had the usual benefits, but after watching a miracle performed by Father Malone, Dominic realises a part of him is skewed, and that mere fantasy will never be enough... -
![The Jade Cabinet by Rikki Ducornet]()
The Jade Cabinet by Rikki Ducornet
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsMade speechless by her eccentric father, the beautiful Etheria is traded for a piece of precious jade. Memory, her sister, tells her story, that of a childhood enlivened by Lewis Carroll and an orangutan named Dr. Johnson and envenomed by the pernicious courtship of Radulph Tubbs, Queen Victoria's own Dragon of Industry...Categorized as:
literary-fiction magical-realism 20th-century adult book contemporary female-author fiction -
![The Understory by Pamela Erens]()
The Understory by Pamela Erens
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsWinner of the Ironweed Press Fiction Prize... -
![Moon Deluxe by Frederick Barthelme]()
Moon Deluxe by Frederick Barthelme
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsFrederick Barthelme's wry and wonderful stories have given us a stunning, cautionary, funny, sometimes bleak, and often transcendent portrait of contemporary life in the sprawl of suburban America. Barthelme made his remarkable debut with these tender and affectionate stories, most of which were originally published in The New Yorker... -
![Hôtel Splendid by Marie Redonnet]()
Hôtel Splendid by Marie Redonnet
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThese three short novels are the first works to appear in English by a remarkable contemporary French author, Marie Redonnet. Born in Paris in 1947, Redonnet taught for a number of years in a suburban lycée before deciding to pursue a writing career full time...Categorized as:
literary-fiction magical-realism 20th-century adult book coming-of-age contemporary female-author -
![Lands of Memory by Felisberto Hernández, Esther Allen]()
Lands of Memory by Felisberto Hernández, Esther Allen
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsLands of Memory presents a half-dozen wonderful works by one of the greatest yet least-known Latin American writers of the twentieth century. Felisberto Hernández's extraordinary stories have been always greatly prized by other writers, and the two novellas and four stories collected in Lands of Memory show why...Categorized as:
literary-fiction magical-realism 20th-century adult anthologies contemporary fiction journey -
![The Nimrod Flipout by Etgar Keret, Institute for Translation of Hebrew Literature]()
The Nimrod Flipout by Etgar Keret, Institute for Translation of Hebrew Literature
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsFrom Israel's most popular and acclaimed young writer--Stories that are short, strange, funny, deceptively casual in tone and affect, stories that sound like a joke but aren't (Yann Martel, author of Life of Pi)Already featured on This American Life and Selected Shorts and in Zoetrope: All Story and L.A...Categorized as:
literary-fiction magical-realism 21st-century adult anthologies comedy contemporary fiction -
![Teething by Megha Rao]()
Teething by Megha Rao
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsA story told in verse, Teething begins when Kochu, a young boy in Kerala, is caught kissing the neighbour’s son. All hell breaks loose, ending in Kochu taking his own life. Years after the scandal, after discovering his suicide note, his oldest sister, Achu, sets out to uncover the mysteries of their dysfunctional family by putting pieces of their past back together...Categorized as:
literary-fiction dark fiction young-adult female-author contemporary lgbtq mental-illness -
-
![Man V. Nature by Diane Cook]()
Man V. Nature by Diane Cook
Rated: 3.93 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsA refreshingly imaginative, daring debut collection of stories which illuminates with audacious wit the complexity of human behavior, as seen through the lens of the natural worldTold with perfect rhythm and unyielding brutality, these stories expose unsuspecting men and women to the realities of nature, the primal instincts of man, and the dark humor and heartbreak of our struggle to not only...Categorized as:
dark literary-fiction magical-realism 21st-century adult anthologies contemporary dystopia -
![If the River Was Whiskey: Stories by T. Coraghessan Boyle]()
If the River Was Whiskey: Stories by T. Coraghessan Boyle
Rated: 3.92 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsMagical, surprising, and very funny stories about eccentrics, charlatans, misfits, and lost souls by the winner of 1987's PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction...Categorized as:
literary-fiction magical-realism adult anthologies contemporary fiction humor satire -
![Smoking Poppy by Graham Joyce]()
Smoking Poppy by Graham Joyce
Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsGraham Joyce travels to an enthralling, suspense-charged landscape in this hallucinatory novel of a father's quest to save his daughter -- without destroying himself. Dan Innes has received shattering news from the British Embassy in Bangkok: his daughter, Charlie, whom he hasn't seen or spoken to in two years, has been imprisoned in a Thai jail for drug smuggling...Categorized as:
dark literary-fiction magical-realism action-adventure adult book contemporary dark-fantasy -
![A Better Angel by Chris Adrian]()
A Better Angel by Chris Adrian
Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsThe stories in A Better Angel describe the terrain of human suffering—illness, regret, mourning, sympathy—in the most unusual of ways. In “Stab,” a bereaved twin starts a friendship with a homicidal fifth grader in the hope that she can somehow lead him back to his dead brother...Categorized as:
literary-fiction magical-realism adult anthologies contemporary death fiction low-fantasy -
![Sticky Fingers by J.T. Lawrence]()
Sticky Fingers by J.T. Lawrence
Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsDiverse, dark-humoured, and deliciously bite-sized, this compelling collection of 12 short stories by JT Lawrence include:'Escape' -- a story about about a suicidal baby who knows he was born into the wrong life, and has to get creative to take measures correct the mistake, much to his mother¹s horror...Categorized as:
dark literary-fiction magical-realism 21st-century adult anthologies contemporary female-mc -
![Sweet Home by Carys Bray]()
Sweet Home by Carys Bray
Rated: 3.89 of 5 stars · 9 ratingsA bereaved mother borrows her next door neighbor’s baby. An outsider builds a gingerbread house at the edge of an English village. A woman is seduced into buying special-offer babies at the supermarket. A father is reminded of his son as he watches the rescue of a group of Chilean miners. A little boy attempts to engineer a happily ever after following the death of his sister...Categorized as:
literary-fiction magical-realism adult anthologies audiobook contemporary family female-author
Or - use our amazing romance book finder to get recommendations based on your favorite content tropes and themes. Mix and match at will.
