Pass seamlessly into the slipstream between fantasy and reality with these six recommendations of where the everyday blurs with elements of magical and illusory. The following books are perfect for you to read if you’re interested in exploring the narrative twists and turns that this intersection encompasses.

Lonely Castle in the Mirror by Mizuki Tsujimura

One, normal morning in a quiet Tokyo neighbourhood, seven teenagers – each stricken with anxiety and desperate loneliness - awaken to find a mirror-portal in their bedrooms, taking them each to a strange and beautiful castle.

The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende

A saga spanning four generations of women from the Trueba family, set during post-colonial Chile. As the country changes around them, threads of clairvoyance and mysticism follow through each woman’s life as they persevere through societal upheaval, violence and strife.

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

This bestselling story, often cited as having defined the more specific genre of Magical Realism, follows the Buendia family throughout the seven generations after their patriarch founded the utopian and isolated Macondo. Over one hundred years, the members of the Buendia family live eccentric and fantastical lives, and meet seemingly fatalistic ends.

Piranesi by Susannah Clarke

Piranesi lives in the House – an infinite place of grand marbled statues and labyrinthian halls, swept through with oceanic tides. He spends his days documenting the House, alone but for the Other, a scholar seeking A Great and Secret Knowledge. Alone, that is, until signs of an intruder unveil a terrible secret.

Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson

After a pleading call from her childhood best friend, Madison, Lillian abandons her dead-end life to become the caretaker for Madison’s twin stepchildren, both of whom spontaneously combust whenever they become agitated.

Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado

This experimental and genre-defying collection of short fiction plays with magical realism to tug at and explore queerness, misogyny, femininity and womanhood, trauma, horror and the unreality of everyday life.

Georgia Phelan is a bookseller at Readings Doncaster with a particular interest in fantasy and science fiction.

All cover sketches also by Georgia Phelan