A range of must-read fiction with a touch of the fantastical recommended by acclaimed author Zoe Gilbert.
The novels and short story collections listed here have one thing in common: they play with the fantastic. However, these writers use fantastical elements in wildly different ways. They all inspire me, and collectively they provide a useful reminder for any writer with fantastical leanings that there is not one ‘right’ way of stepping beyond reality in the search for meaning.
While I’ve had to be selective, and this is far from being a complete list of books I’d recommend, I have aimed for as much variety in approach as possible across fifteen novels and fifteen short story collections. I hope the sheer range of voices, styles, stories and strangeness here encourages aspiring writers of fantastic fiction, and opens up new ways of thinking about how it can work. As with any incomplete list, I hope it also brings to mind fantastical stories that I have not included, but that also inspire you. Happy reading and writing!
Are you a writer that bends the rules of reality? Do you look to folklore, magic and the supernatural for inspiration in your writing? Join Zoe for Fantastic Fiction: Writing Magical Worlds, an online course dedicated entirely to developing stories that come with a fantastical edge. Course information and booking
Novels
Nights at the Circus by Angela Carter
The Invention of Morel by Adolfo Bioy Casares
Thursbitch by Alan Garner
Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Fragile Monsters by Catherine Menon
Circe by Madeline Miller
The Famished Road by Ben Okri
Mr Fox by Helen Oyeyemi
Titus Groan and Gormenghast by Mervyn Peake
Lanny by Max Porter
This One Sky Day by Leone Ross
The Seawomen by Chloe Timms
Primeval and Other Times by Olga Tokarczuk
Baba Yaga Laid an Egg by Dubravka Ugrešić
Short story collections
Fictions by Jorge Luis Borges
Friday Black by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang
Burning your Boats: Collected Short Stories by Angela Carter
The Museum of Shadows and Reflections by Claire Dean
Red Spikes by Margo Lanagan
Magic For Beginners by Kelly Link
A Portable Shelter by Kirsty Logan
Speak Gigantular by Irenosen Okojie
Dark Neighbourhood by Vanessa Onwumezi
What is not yours is not yours by Helen Oyeyemi
There One Lived a Woman Who Tried to Kill Her Neighbour’s Baby: Scary Fairy Tales by Ludmilla Petrushevskaya
St Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves by Karen Russell
Pastoralia by George Saunders
The Street of Crocodiles by Bruno Schulz
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