Fantasy

What if the only way to save your future was to journey into Hell? Alice Law has sacrificed almost everything to become a brilliant scholar of analytic magic at Cambridge University. But when her formidable academic advisor, Professor Jacob Grimes, dies in a magical accident, Alice faces the possibility of losing the career she has worked so hard to build. Determined to retrieve his soul, she descends into the underworld, accompanied by Peter Murdoch, her gifted—and deeply resented—academic rival. Guided by ancient myths and philosophical texts, the pair must navigate a Hell that defies everything they have been taught. As their dangerous journey exposes buried secrets and forces them to confront their complicated relationship with their mentor, Alice begins questioning the ambitions that have defined her life. Blending dark academia, mythology, intellectual rivalry, and biting humour, R. F. Kuang’s fantasy explores the brutal demands of academic ambition and the price of pursuing greatness.

What happens to the stories we never tell? When celebrated novelist Alma Cruz retires, she returns to her family’s homeland, the Dominican Republic, and creates an unusual resting place for her unfinished manuscripts: a cemetery where forgotten characters can finally be laid to rest. But the stories refuse to remain buried. As their characters begin speaking back to their creator, hidden histories, family secrets, and forgotten lives emerge from the pages. Blending magical realism with Dominican history, Julia Alvarez explores who gets to tell a story, whose voices are silenced, and whether we ever truly own the stories we create. A moving celebration of the power of storytelling, this novel reminds us that even the tales we try to bury can find their way into the light.

In the Congolese coastal city of Pointe-Noire, twenty-two-year-old Liwa Ekimakingaï wakes up in a cemetery, discovering that he has been dead for three days. Dressed forever in a pair of flared purple trousers, he finds himself among the cemetery’s other residents, whose extraordinary stories reveal a world where the boundary between the living and the dead is surprisingly thin. Unable to remember exactly how he died, Liwa sets out to revisit his past and uncover the truth behind his mysterious death. His journey takes him back to his childhood, his beloved grandmother, and the events surrounding his final night. As memories and rumours begin to converge, a darker picture emerges of a society shaped by corruption, political violence, and the pursuit of wealth and power. Blending African spiritual traditions, surreal humour, and social satire, Mabanckou creates a fantastical portrait of contemporary Congolese life. Beneath its playful, ghostly premise, the novel asks who controls the stories of the dead—and whether justice remains possible after life has ended.

Death of the Author follows Zelu, a Nigerian American writer who faces professional setbacks and personal challenges after losing her academic job. Unable to find success with the literary fiction she has been writing, she turns to science fiction and creates Rustic, a novel set in a distant future where robots struggle to understand humanity after a global catastrophe. The book unexpectedly becomes a bestseller, transforming Zelu’s life while raising difficult questions about authorship, recognition, and the relationship between a writer and her work. As Zelu navigates newfound fame, family tensions, and questions about her physical disability, her fictional world unfolds alongside her own story. The novel moves between these narratives, exploring how stories shape our understanding of humanity and whose voices are permitted to imagine the future. Blending speculative fiction, literary metafiction, and social commentary, Okorafor examines disability, technology, race, creativity, and the meaning of storytelling. The novel challenges conventional ideas about literary value and asks who has the authority to tell stories—and what happens when those stories take on a life of their own.

Exit Zero is a collection of twelve surreal and imaginative short stories that explore the strange, often unsettling experiences of ordinary people. Blending magical realism, dark humour, and reflections on mortality, Marie-Helene Bertino creates worlds where the boundaries between everyday life and the extraordinary begin to dissolve. In the title story, Jo returns to her estranged father’s home after his death and discovers that she has inherited an unexpected companion: a unicorn living in the backyard. Elsewhere, former lovers fall mysteriously from the sky, gardens become sites of communication between the living and the dead, and familiar objects take on uncanny significance. Beneath the collection’s fantastical premises lies a thoughtful exploration of loneliness, family relationships, grief, and the difficulty of navigating an unpredictable world. Bertino’s stories invite readers to look beyond the apparent absurdity of everyday existence and consider the connections, losses, and moments of wonder that give life meaning.

What if the perfect book found you exactly when you needed it most? Hidden inside an ordinary train station north of Tokyo, the Friday Bookshop is said to have a special gift: it can lead readers to the book they need at that particular moment in their lives. Beyond its modest entrance lies an extraordinary underground library, built inside an abandoned subway platform, alongside a cosy café where the chef creates dishes inspired by literature. When university student Fumiya arrives searching for a book for his seriously ill father, he expects little from the unassuming shop. But the eccentric trio who run it soon draw him into their world, and he begins working there part-time. Through the stories of visitors seeking comfort, answers, and connection, Fumiya discovers that books can do far more than entertain: they can help us understand ourselves and reach the people we love. Warm, whimsical, and filled with literary treasures, The Friday Bookshop celebrates the quiet magic of reading and the unexpected friendships that grow around shared stories. It reminds us that sometimes the right book finds us just when we need it most.

In The Heart of the Nhaga, the first volume of Lee Young-do’s celebrated epic fantasy series The Bird That Drinks Tears, four distinct peoples inhabit a world divided by the mysterious Line of Limit. To the north live humans, the Tokkebi, who wield fire as both a weapon and an illusion, and the Rekon, powerful birdlike warriors. To the south dwell the Nhaga, reptilian beings who surrender their hearts in exchange for immortality. When a Nhaga is sent on a mission northward, three companions—one from each northern people—are tasked with ensuring his safe passage. Their journey quickly becomes more complicated than expected: the Tokkebi is a scholar rather than an adventurer, the formidable Rekon fears water, and the human hunts Nhaga for food. When their original charge is murdered and replaced by another Nhaga who still possesses his heart, the group faces an even more dangerous expedition. As the unlikely companions struggle to survive, they must confront their prejudices and discover the true purpose of their mission. Combining imaginative world-building, political intrigue, humor, and philosophical questions about identity and mortality, Lee creates an epic fantasy that draws on Korean cultural influences while exploring universal themes of difference, cooperation, and belonging.

In a remote Scottish town on the Orkney Islands, Paul, a Swiss interior designer, lives a quiet, carefully ordered life devoted to aesthetics and precision. His routine is disrupted when he receives an unusual commission from a prestigious design magazine: he must travel to Norway to paint a vast data centre in the perfect shade of white. But the journey takes an unexpected turn, and Paul mysteriously disappears from his familiar reality. Elsewhere, in a strange, myth-haunted world, a young girl named Ildr discovers an injured stranger whom she initially mistakes for an animal. As she helps him recover, the two embark on a dangerous journey through an unfamiliar landscape, pursued by the soldiers of a ruthless duke. Blurring the boundaries between fantasy, reality, and dreams, Christian Kracht’s enigmatic novel explores the fragility of modern civilisation and the possibility of escaping its constraints. With precise, atmospheric prose, Air invites readers into a world where time, identity, and existence itself become uncertain.

What if, after death, you were given one final chance to remain close to the people you love? In The Soul Catchers, eleven recently deceased people encounter a mysterious, nameless spirit who offers them an unusual opportunity: they can return to the world of the living by inhabiting an object cherished by someone they left behind. A treasured mug, a mother’s hearing aid, a diary, or a playground climbing frame becomes a vessel through which the departed can continue to experience fragments of the lives they once knew. Through these intimate encounters, Naoko Higashi explores the quiet, complicated emotions that accompany love and loss. Each story offers a different perspective on the bonds that connect people across generations, even when death has made ordinary communication impossible. Blending magical realism with elements of Japanese folk beliefs about spirits and the presence of souls in everyday objects, this tender, gently humorous collection reflects on grief, memory, and the difficulty of letting go. It invites readers to reconsider the meaning of presence and suggests that love can endure in the smallest, most unexpected corners of our lives.

In The Witch, Marie NDiaye tells the story of Lucie, a woman who discovers that she possesses magical powers inherited from her mother. Living in a seemingly ordinary French suburb, Lucie struggles to pass her knowledge of witchcraft on to her twin daughters while navigating an unhappy marriage and an increasingly unstable family life. As her daughters begin to develop their own powers and assert their independence, Lucie’s sense of control over her family and identity begins to unravel. Blending dark humor, psychological tension, and elements of the supernatural, NDiaye explores motherhood, female power, and the complexities of family relationships. The novel offers a subtle, unsettling examination of the desire to control others and the difficulty of understanding those closest to us.

When a mysterious, deadly plague sweeps across the world, a group of friends seeks refuge in a luxurious countryside mansion near the Pakistan–India border. But the haveli conceals an ancient darkness, and when they uncover a sealed chest hidden in a nearby cave, they unleash a primordial force that turns their sanctuary into a nightmare. Trapped inside the sprawling estate, the friends begin to unravel under the influence of its sinister magic, confronting buried traumas, personal demons, and the stories they tell themselves to survive. Drawing on South Asian and Middle Eastern folklore, this atmospheric dark fantasy explores memory, fear, and the terrifying power of the past.

Yasmine Ra’ad has one goal: to kill the king of Arawiya, the man whose throne was built on the destruction of her family. When she receives an invitation to compete for his hand in marriage, she sees the perfect opportunity to get close enough to strike. But King Altair has secrets of his own, including a deadly fate that can only be avoided if he takes a bride before the next full moon. As Yasmine plays the devoted suitor, revenge becomes complicated by an unexpected attraction. A dark, enchanting romantic fantasy about vengeance, political intrigue, and the dangerous distance between hatred and love.