While magical realism is a relatively recent trend in literature, its ability to allow the reader to see the world from a fresh perspective means it is now one of the more popular. Seamlessly converging the mundane with the mystical, books in the genre are grounded in reality, but draw on traditions of oral storytelling, folklore, fables mythology and the supernatural, to allow readers a portal to another world.   

‘The way in which magic realism actually works is for the magic to be rooted in the real.’ Salman Rushie, winner of the Booker Prize 1981 for his novel Midnight’s Children, once said. ‘It’s both things. It’s not just a fairytale moment. It’s the surrealism that arises out of the real,’ he emphasised. 

The term itself was first coined by a German art critic, Franz Roh, in 1925, to describe post-expressionist paintings that captured the rational world alongside magical or dream-like elements. It wasn’t until 1955, when critic Angel Flores introduced the phrase into literature, that it became a recognised genre.  

Since then, the genre has exploded. Gabriel Garcia Marquez, nominated for the International Booker Prize for his entire body of work in 2005, set the stage with his novel One Hundred Years of Solitude, published in 1967, and many authors then followed suit. Booker Prize-nominated authors, such as Yann Martel, Shokoofeh Azar and 2022’s winner, Shehan Karunatilika, continue to combine fact with fantasy – the best of their novels can be found in this list. 

Life of Pi by Yann Martel 

Winner of the Booker Prize in 2002, Yann Martel’s Life of Pi has sold more than 15 million copies worldwide. The novel is a religious allegory which Martel said can be summarised in three statements, ‘Life is a story. You can choose your story. A story with God is the better story.’ Considered by many to be a modern classic, the book tells of 16-year-old Piscine Molitor ‘Pi’ Patel who grows up in Pondicherry, India, where his father manages a zoo. After the Indian Prime Minister declares the Emergency, Pi’s family decides to emigrate to Canada, taking their animals with them. While travelling on a freighter, a storm hits, the ship sinks and Pi finds himself adrift on a lifeboat in the Pacific Ocean, with a Bengal tiger called Richard Parker. Encountering a range of fantastical circumstances during their 227 days at sea – a cannibalistic algae island, just to name one – the novel suspends readers’ beliefs as they journey with Pi. In 2012, Life of Pi was adapted into an award-winning film by Ang Lee, which went on to be nominated for 11 awards at the Oscars and won four of them.  

The Gospel According to the New World by Maryse Condé, translated by Richard Philcox 

Considered the Grande Dame of Caribbean literature, Maryse Condé has had an acclaimed four-decade literary career. Shortlisted for the International Booker Prize in 2023, her French language title, The Gospel According to the New World, was dictated by Condé to her husband-translator, Richard Philcox, due to her loss of vision. Set in the Caribbean, baby Pascal has been abandoned by his birth mother. Raised by foster parents, his appearance and behaviour are perceived to be special, and he is rumoured to be the child of God. The story follows Pascal into adulthood, as he travels extensively throughout communities, searching for his revered father, hoping to shed some light on his own mission in life. Set in modern times but inspired by the story of Christ, Condé’s book mirrors Biblical tales as events arise that are deemed miracles, while also drawing on Caribbean folklore. The 2023 International Booker Prize judges said the novel ‘borrows from the tradition of magic realism and draws us into a world full of colour and life’. 

The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka 

Winner of the Booker Prize 2022, The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida is a searing satire of Sri Lankan politics that navigates the complexities of life and death. The novel’s protagonist, Maali Almeida, describes himself in three words: ‘Photographer, gambler, slut’. He has woken up dead, unable to figure out who has killed him and is given a week (seven moons) to deal with his unfinished business. Travelling between the real world and the afterlife, Maali seeks out his killer while trying to guide his loved ones towards a hidden stash of photos that will ‘bring down governments’. Shehan Karunatilaka’s second novel is a multi-layered read with elements of magical realism, Sri Lankan mythology, the spirit world, and the brutality of the country’s civil war in the 1980s. According to the Financial Times, the novel is ‘epic in scope (mixing tropes from thrillers, crime fiction and magic realism) and a powerful evocation of Sri Lanka’s brutal past.’ 

The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell 

Covering five different characters’ viewpoints through intersecting stories, beginning in 1984 and ending in 2043, The Bone Clocks was longlisted for the Booker Prize 2014. The novel starts with the adventures of 15-year-old semi-psychic Holly who runs away from home. While Holly’s whole life is depicted throughout the novel, Mitchell introduces readers to other characters along the way, including unethical university student Hugo, war journalist Ed, down-and-out writer Crispin and reincarnated doctor Marinus. With the narrative spanning 59 years, the reader is transported across the world as battle rages between two immortal groups, the Horologists and the Anchorites. While the magical elements skew this book more towards fantasy – with the appearance of vampires, shapeshifters, demons, and an ancient magical battle – they are interspersed within real-world events and contemporary issues, such as the Iraq War and climate change.  

Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie  

Nominated for the Booker Prize seven times, Salman Rushdie is now widely considered to be one of the literary greats and a master of the magical realism genre, with his collection of works often blurring the lines between fantasy and reality. His 1981 novel, Midnight’s Children, is rooted in the events of India’s independence from British rule in 1947. The story follows Saleem Sinai, who was born at the stroke of midnight on the very day of India’s partition, and, as a result, is bestowed with magical abilities including the power to connect with 1,000 other children born at the same time, who also possess similar supernatural gifts. Believing he is on the cusp of death, Saleem recounts his life story, detailing the events of the Emergency that lasted from 1975 to 1977, a real-world crisis marked by human rights violations and media censorship. Midnight’s Children is an allegory for India’s modern, post-colonial history. It won the Booker Prize in 1981, and two special awards celebrating the anniversary of the prize: the Booker of Bookers in 1994, and the Best of the Booker in 2008.  

Exit West by Mohsin Hamid 

A love story set amongst an active civil war, Exit West follows conservative, quiet Saeed and independent Nadia as they fall in love. The book describes life at the heart of a refugee crisis, capturing the realistic state of events within the characters’ unnamed war-torn country, with water and food shortages, and increased levels of violence. When tragedy strikes, the couple flee through a series of magical doors – portals that take them to locations around the world as they seek shelter from not only their homeland’s war but also the ensuing emigration crisis. Travelling from continent to continent the couple face prejudice and exclusion on their long quest for peace. Exit West was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2017, and described by the Guardian as ‘a parable of hideous contemporary familiarity and strangeness’. The New York Review of Books said it was a ‘breathtaking, complex, sweeping view of the current global predicament, not just a crisis of refugees, but the conundrum of borders and wealth.’ 

The Bone People by Keri Hulme 

Described by the Guardian as ‘the strangest novel ever to win the Booker’ when it won the prize in 1985, Keri Hulme’s The Bone People incorporates Māori folklore and mythology into the complicated lives of three damaged characters whose lives intersect. What began as an alter-ego character for the author became the reclusive artist Kerewin, who lives an isolated existence on the South Island of New Zealand. A mute child, Simon appears on her doorstep one day and Kerewin finds that the boy is the foster child of Māori local, Joe, whose tragic past haunts him. Hulme draws from traditional stories of sacred spirits, using aspects of Māori mythology to bring about change within the characters’ lives, while also addressing their legacies of abuse and trauma. While the chair of the 1985 judging panel, Norman St John-Stevas called The Bone People ‘a highly poetic book, filled with striking imagery and insights,’ the panel was famously split on the novel’s win, partly due to the violence and child abuse depicted within it.  

Whale by Cheon Myeong-kwan, translated by Chi-Young Kim 

Considered a contemporary classic in South Korea, Whale was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize in 2023, nearly 20 years after it was first published in Korean. It follows the lives of three distinct characters through the changing political landscape of South Korea, from the Korean War to the modernisation of today. There’s entrepreneurial Geumbok; her mute daughter who can communicate with elephants, Chunhui; and a one-eyed woman who controls an army of bees. According to Buzz Magazine, ‘Whale’s magical realism provides an entertaining element, imbuing hidden meaning in even the simplest turns of events.’ From otherworldly creatures (including a psychic elephant) to supernatural events, the book draws on traditional oral storytelling of the region, while intertwining the surreal with harsh reality, addressing communism and gender politics along the way. 

The Dangers of Smoking in Bed by Mariana Enriquez, translated by Megan McDowell

Twisted stories with a dark and often frightening edge, Mariana Enriquez’s collection blends real life with the horror genre as she takes readers through 12 macabre short stories. Set in and around Buenos Aires, the stories possess supernatural qualities – from sinister witches to zombie babies – but with human experiences at their heart, and sharp observations on social and political problems of Enriquez’s home country, including the military dictatorship that gripped Argentina from 1976 to 1983. Booker Prize winner Kazuo Ishiguro said, ‘The beautiful, horrible world of Mariana Enriquez, as glimpsed in The Dangers of Smoking in Bed, with its disturbed adolescents, ghosts, decaying ghouls, the sad and angry homeless of modern Argentina, is the most exciting discovery I’ve made in fiction for some time.’ The book was shortlisted for the 2021 International Booker Prize. 

Cursed Bunny by Bora Chung, translated by Anton Hur 

Another collection of short stories to chill you to the bone, Cursed Bunny contains 10 grotesque and graphic tales that use fantastical elements to tackle a range of modern-day themes, from the patriarchy to unchecked capitalism. ‘Embodiment’ follows a virgin who gets pregnant after taking too many birth control pills and must find a father for her baby, a metaphor for the struggles of single motherhood; while immoral greed and an incessant thirst for wealth drive the story ‘Snare’. Expect the unexpected in Bora Chung’s absurd and nightmarish stories, where disembodied heads emerge from toilet bowls, foxes bleed pure gold, and a rabbit-shaped lamp is embued with a curse to avenge the death of a friend. Translated from Korean by Anton Hur, this thought-provoking collection was shortlisted for the 2022 International Booker Prize.  

Lanny by Max Porter

As an editor, Max Porter worked on Eleanor Catton’s 2013 Booker-winning novel The Luminaries and Han Kang’s 2016 International Booker-winning The Vegetarian, so it is obvious he knows what makes a good story. In 2019, he found himself on the other side of the award, when his second novel, Lanny, was longlisted for that year’s Booker Prize. Set in an English village not far from London, the book follows Robert and Jolie Lloyd and their eccentric son Lanny, a free-spirited and curious child with a strong connection to nature. But Dead Papa Toothwort – an ancient Green Man-like spirit who feeds off the voices of the villagers – is on the prowl, and becomes fascinated by Lanny, wanting to steal him away. Porter fuses fable with folklore in this lyrical tale that is experimental in both form and plot. 

The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree by Shokoofeh Azar 

Weaving Persian folklore and fantastical creatures into the dark reality of the Islamic Revolution, Shokoofeh Azar captures the tragedies and brutality directly following the events of 1979. Described as being ‘an embodiment of Iranian life in constant oscillation, struggle and play between four opposing poles: life and death; politics and religion,’ The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree, which was banned in Iran, is narrated by Bahar, a 13-year-old girl – who also happens to be a ghost. Her family is forced to flee Tehran to a remote village, seeking peace far away from the violence of the city. But instead, the post-revolutionary chaos and upheaval continue to shadow them. The book was shortlisted for the 2020 International Booker Prize, a first for fiction translated from Farsi, yet despite this landmark moment, the publisher withheld the name of the US-based translator for reasons of safety and security.  

Everything Under by Daisy Johnson 

Daisy Johnson’s debut novel Everything Under is a reinterpretation of the story, transports the Oedipus myth to the 21st century but with some supernatural twists added in for good measure. The book revolves around Gretel, a lexicographer who is searching for her long-lost mother, Sarah, who disappeared 16 years earlier. Set amongst the canals of Oxfordshire with a terrifying monster called ‘the Bonak’ lurking riverside, the story follows Gretel as she seeks out an old acquaintance and instead discovers a disturbing prophecy. As the mystery behind Sarah’s disappearance is slowly revealed, Johnson nods to folklore and fairy tales within the eerie, water-logged world. This tale of a strained mother-daughter relationship burdened with distressing secrets was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2018.