Historical Magical Realism

Buying into the dream that education is the road out of poverty, a teen mom takes a chance on bettering herself, gets on welfare rolls, and talks her way into college. But once she's there, phallocratic narratives permeate every subject, and creative writing professors depend heavily on Freytag's pyramid to analyze life. So Ariel turns to a rich subcultural canon of resistance and failure, populated by writers like Audre Lorde, Tillie Olsen, and Kathy Acker. Wryly riffing on feminist literary tropes, We Were Witches documents the survival of a demonized single mother.

Set in Iran in the decade following the 1979 Islamic Revolution, this moving, richly imagined novel is narrated by the ghost of Bahar, a 13-year-old girl, whose family is compelled to flee their home in Tehran for a new life in a small village, hoping in this way to preserve both their intellectual freedom and their lives. But they soon find themselves caught up in the post-revolutionary chaos that sweeps across their ancient land. Bahar's mother, after a tragic loss, embarks on a long, eventful journey in search of meaning in a world swept up in the post-revolutionary madness.

Set in the waning days of the Dutch Golden Age, this enchanting, lush reimagining of The Little Mermaid is perfect for fans of Jesse Burton’s The Miniaturist and Leigh Bardugo’s The Familiar. The Dutch Republic, 1650. One fine spring day in Friesland, twenty-year-old Clara van Wieren is...

A sweeping, magical ode to community and the stories we leave behind, The Memory of Borrowed Books follows one librarian who discovers a hidden room of unfinished memories—and must find the one that can save her beloved library from closing forever. Perfect for fans of Evie Woods and How to...

A nearly 40-year-old woman must embrace the magic of a mysterious Salem house and the unexpected friendships it brings to rebuild her life while navigating dangerous hexes and flirty feelings for the town’s cursed bachelor in the first installment of The Lost Souls Series From the moment...

The Heirloom, a new HarperCollins book, full description to follow when available...