Six new novels that blur the line between fantasy & reality
Digital Marketing Manager Lian Hingee shares some recent fiction releases that blur the lines between fantasy and reality.
Melmoth by Sarah Perry
Inspired by the nineteenth century gothic novel, Melmoth the Wanderer, Sarah Perry’s Melmoth is a modern-day ghost story about a mysterious dark-robed woman who roams the globe, searching for those whose complicity and cowardice have contributed to the darkest chapters of human history. Our reviewer wrote: ‘ Melmoth makes you question human transgression, morality, social injustice and your own conscience; and what it means to be good, but to do evil.’ Read the full review here.
The Pisces by Melissa Broder
This debut novel from Melissa Broder is not your quintessential mermaid story. Full of sex, self destruction, and obsession, it follows Lucy, a bored 38-year-old PhD student, who falls in love with the impossible (and impossibly perfect) Theo, a merman she discovers loitering around the breakwater near her sister’s beachside home. In my review I wrote: ‘ The Pisces is a filthy, satirical, thought-provoking book about how the missing parts in our existence are made more beautiful by the promise of what they could have been.’ Read my full review here.
Beneath the Mother Tree by D.M. Cameron
D.M. Cameron’s debut novel, Beneath the Mother Tree, deftly combines Indigenous history with Irish mythology. Set on a small Australian island, it’s the story of a mystery at the heart of a tight-knit community. Are the unexplained tragedies plaguing the island the work of a dangerous stranger, or is there something more mystical at play?
If Cats Disappeared From The World by Genki Kawamura (translated by Eric Selland)
Japanese bestseller If Cats Disappeared From The World is the story of a dying man who is offered an extra day of life in exchange for making one thing in the world disappear for good. It’s easy enough to sacrifice clocks and phones, but what happens when the man is asked to put cats – and by extension his own beloved pet – on the line? If Cats Disappeared From The World is a slim, heartfelt volume about what’s really important in life. (Cats, obviously.)
That Old Black Magic by Cathi Unsworth
Inspired by the real-life Hagley Woods Murder case from 1943, That Old Black Magic blends fact and fiction to present a story about spies and sorcery in World War II. MI5 agent Ross Spooner is investigating the case of a psychic medium who, during séances, is divulging state secrets that she couldn’t possibly have access to. Is she genuine, a lucky fraud, or a traitor to the nation? And what does she have to do with the baffling case of a young woman whose body has been found stashed in the trunk of a giant elm tree? This is a well-researched novel that’s part historical fiction, part crime and past fantasy.
The Psychology of Time Travel by Kate Mascarenhas
The Psychology of Time Travel is an elaborately plotted book about four women – experts in the fields of nuclear fission, cosmology, thermodynamics, and radio waves – who manage to invent a time machine in 1967. When one of the four, Barbara, suffers a bad psychological reaction from the travel, she is shut out from the project. Fifty years later Barbara’s granddaughter is paying her a visit when they receive a mysterious note from a year into the future: an elderly woman has been murdered, her body found impossibly in a room locked from the inside. Author Kate Mascarenhas is a chartered psychologist, and her debut novel takes a very original approach to the topic of time travel, challenging readers to think about how time travel would change a person psychologically and emotionally.
