Popular Magical Realistic Books & Films

This is a list taken from my two-part series on Magical Realism:

Part I focuses on what Magical Realism is and is not. 

Part II is on Using Magical Realism in Your Writing.

I wrote these posts after talking Magical Realism on the Firsts in Fiction Podcast. Check out the Magical Realism Episode!

What are some popular examples of Magical Realism in literature?

One Hundred Years of Solitude and Time in the Love of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Winter's Tale (Also a film)

Practical Magic and The Red Garden - Alice Hoffman 

The Theory of Invisibility - Aimee Pita

Sugar Queen, Garden Spells, The Girl who Chased the Moon - Sarah Addison Allen 

The House of the Spirits - Isabel Allende 

The Library of Babel - Jorge Luis Borges

The Night Circus - Erin Morgenstern

Pretty Monsters - Kelly Link

The Secret Garden and A Little Princess - Francis Hodgson Burnett – 

Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte

Orlando - Virginia Wolf

White Teeth - Zadie Smith

Beloved - Toni Morrison

Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel

Forever by Pete Hamill

What are some popular films that make use of Magical Realism?

Many of the books above have also been made into movies but then there is:

Lady in the Water by M. Night Shyamalan

Winter's Tale (Also a book)

Immortality (The Wisdom of Crocodiles)

Chocolat

Magnolia

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Moulin Rouge!

Ameile

The Green Mile

The Piano

Groundhog Day

Big

Stranger Than Fiction

Cash Back

Scholarly Non-Fiction Magical Realism Books.

Magical Realism: History, Theory, Community

Magical Realist Fiction: An Anthology

Ordinary Enchantments: Magical Realism and the Remystification of the Narrative

For more on Magical Realism and How to Use it In Your Writing, Check Out Part II on Using Magical Realism in Your Writing or check out the Firsts in Fiction Podcast!

Help me add to the list! What Magical Realism titles would you add to these?


About Stephanie Carroll
Stephanie Carroll is the author of A White Room and "Forget Me Not" featured in Legacy: An Anthology. She blogs about magical realism, her research into the Victorian Era and Gilded Age, writing, and life in general at www.stephaniecarroll.net and at The Unhinged Historian. She also founded Unhinged and Empowered, a blog for Navy wives and girlfriends.

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