Where the Extraordinary is Ordinary

Tere Sánchez is a professor, wife, and mother grieving the loss of her husband when she begins to levitate spontaneously. These episodes quickly prove to be a huge pain in the ass, and Tere remembers that her family is allegedly related to Teresa of Ávila, the medieval saint who famously experienced levitation. Tere drops everything and books a trip to Spain to see what she can learn about her ancestor and, hopefully, herself. This story of self-discovery is a tender exploration of grief, second chances, mysticism, and feeling seen as a woman of a certain age.

This is a literary horror novel from Oyinkan Braithwaite, author of My Sister, the Serial Killer. Ebun gives birth to her daughter, Eniiyi, on the same day that her family buried her cousin Monife. Right away, everyone sees the connection between Eniiyi and Monife and worries Eniiyi will be doomed to the same tragic fate. Between that and the family curse, will Eniiyi be doomed to a life of sadness and heartbreak? Or will she be able to break the cycle? —Emily Martin

Jazmina Barrera apparently didn’t set out to write this book. She intended to write a short essay about Elena Garro, the influential Mexican novelist, journalist, playwright, screenwriter, and OG of the magical realism movement. But the more she researched Garro via traditional methods, the less she felt like she understood her subject. Barrera embarked on a journey to truly see the author in all of her complexity, and the result is this book. It’s billed as more than a biography, as an alternate history of Mexico City and an “homage to the unknowable.”

Remember thirty seconds ago when I told you who Elena Garro was? Well looky here, it’s a book she wrote! Available in English for the first time, these stories of feminist horror and anticolonial specualtive fiction were forged in the fires of the early magical realism movement. It’s no surprise (and such a perfect fit) that they were translated by the wonderfully talented Megan McDowell, whom we have to thank for translations of Samantha Schweblin and Mariana Enriquez’s books. If you’re a fan of these mavens of Latin American horror, spend some time with the work of the “cursed mother of magical realism” who paved the way for them to do their thing.

Thirty-five-year-old Dolores Moore has been laid off from her job and is going through a breakup, and now she’s grieving the loss of her mother. She’s staring down the task of sorting out her inheritance, all while a Greek chorus of dead relatives’ voices follows her around offering unsolicited advice. Those voices have big feelings about a deathbed promise Dorrie made to her mother to return to her birthplace in Colombia, but she feels like it’s the worst time to leave home. Then a minor medical emergency brings an old flame back into her life, one who offers to house sit so Dorrie can make good on her promise. With the chorus egging her on and a hand-drawn map of Cali, Colombia in her possession, she sets out on a journey she’ll never forget.