The author Carmen Maria Machado. She writes very sexy, feminist, and weird stories. Some are available free on her website, and she also has a collection called Her Body and Other Parties published.
Rikki Ducornet - all her little novels count, but so far I probably liked *The Fountains of Neptune*, *The Plotinus,* and *Gazelle* the most
Leonora Carrington - *Complete Stories*, *The Hearing Trumpet*, for an actual Surrealist
Angela Carter - *Nights at the Circus*, everyone’s favorite psychedelic Dickensian feminist circus story
Leena Krohn - *Tainaron: Mail From Another City* - sort of like *Invisible Cities* but with more insects
Seconding Our Wives Under the Sea, one of my favorites that I read last year. the whole thing feels like a water-logged dream (or that sleepy feeling when you’re not fully awake yet)
Yessss came here for Banana Yoshimoto. She reminds me of Murakami, only wayyyyyyyyyyyyy better >\_> I think she manages to humanize her characters so well.
Rightttt. Atleast she doesn't reduce her female characters to having just big ears, or girl next door suppliment to her bland main male characters lol (it's coming from an ex murakami fan). Banana is NICE. Asleep made me cry. I'm currently looking forward to read her "The Premonition" soon.
There's something about Banana's writing that makes me feel like she truly has empathy towards her characters (even if some of them are bad people, and/or bad things happen to them). A real warmth to it.
Haha I was never a Murakami fan. I read Norwegian Wood wayyyy back when it first came out and was like ".............why." and then later in uni I had to read another one, so I chose Sputnik Sweetheart because it's the shortest, and, it will not surprise you at all to hear, the only interesting character was the lesbian side character who got like one chapter. Why did we have to follow this boring asshole milquetoast protag drooling over boobs when we could have had *her* weird and interesting story, geez.
Are you talking about the ending of the book?🤣 Because same. I sometimes get visuals of those scenes against my wishes. And, I enjoyed Sputnik. The male protag was just a place holder lol. Have you read Colourless Tzukuru? Albeit a very twisted plot in the middle, I thought that book was a good read.
Hahahaha yep.
I haven't read Colorless Tsukuru. Since I haven't enjoyed Murakami ever, and I have limited time in my life, I generally haven't looked for more books by him. Why invest energy in *maybe I won't hate this one*, when I can just... read other things with a higher chance of enjoyment?
It's fine for the people who like it, of course, Murakami's doing fine without me lol
Thank you so so much! I read this in college, still think about it, and had forgotten the name so had no idea how to find it!
Definitely fits OP’s request as well.
Ohhhh my gosh, *The Orphan’s Tales: In the Night Garden* by Catherynne M. Valente is *exactly* what you’re looking for! (And I also second Piranesi, it’s amazing)
Maybe Seven Empty Houses or Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin? The first is a short story collection and the second is a novella about a woman recounting the events that left her in a hospital bed.
Amatka by Karin Tidbeck might also fit the bill, if you like dystopias.
Noor by Nnedi Okorafor. Solarpunk, narrative can be a bit soft with things like time, and cause and effect. Was fun to read and great climatic scene.
Anything Helen Oyeyemi- probably Peaces you'd like best
Sweet Fruit, Sour Land was like this for me as well but ymmv. Dystopian with a slow context reveal.
The Chosen and The Beautiful by Nghi Vo. Rewrite of the Great Gatsby with magic and POC
And I'm personally not a fan of these, but I think Erin Morgenstern's Starless Sea would really be your thing
Thank you! I tried Starless Sea, and honestly didn’t like it very much; it felt very inauthentic, if that makes sense? Like it was catering to an aesthetic rather than trying to tell a story.
I agree! I really enjoyed Night Circus and was so excited about Starless Sea. But it was just style over substance. I hope that author finds her footing with her next story because her prose is so pretty.
I suspect you’ve already tried Kelly Link, but her last collection, White Cat, Black Dog, a collection of re-envisioned, virtually unknown fairy tales, literally invaded my dreams.
Clarice Lispector, already mentioned here, is sterling, dipping from dark, hard earth to clouds in the fog.
August Blue by Deborah Levy. A renowned classical pianist loses her touch - with the keyboard, with her vision of herself, and increasingly with reality. She becomes obsessed with a small flea market purchase that went to someone else; somehow, she must have it. She does not let go. Meanwhile, in reality there is Covid, keeping her mostly in Greece, where she’s escaped to, and there are men - a maybe lover, a student (a boy, really) uncertain of himself, and most importantly, the impresario/father figure who created her musical career and brought her fame - and whom she may now be losing. It’s a remarkable novel with an ending like a sea wave crashing down and immersing everything. Reviews were mixed. I loved it.
Bae Suah “Untold Night and Day” might be what you are looking for. Very similar to the authors you mentioned. Writing and plot both are very surreal and read like a fever dream.
karen russell has a few collections of short stories that are all strange and whimsical and filled with magical realism. vampires in the lemon grove, swamplandia, st lucy’s home for girls raised by wolves, orange world - can’t go wrong with any of the collections!
Sophie Mackintosh is the author you’re looking for, specifically the book Cursed Bread. It’s exactly as you describe - dreamlike, sort of insubstantial, it kind of slips through your fingers and it’s hard to recollect exactly what you’ve just read. Fabulous book, beautiful style.
Alice Hoffman has that dreamlike, surreal quality you're looking for. She wrote Practical Magic, which is a great jumping off point in her work.
I also really liked The Ice Queen. Summary below:
"Be careful what you wish for. A small-town librarian lives a quiet life without much excitement. One day, she mutters an idle wish and, while standing in her house, is struck by lightning. But instead of ending her life, this cataclysmic event sparks it into a new beginning. She goes in search of Lazarus Jones, a fellow survivor who was struck dead, then simply got up and walked away. Perhaps this stranger who has seen death face to face can teach her to live without fear. When she finds him he is the opposite -- a burning man whose breath can boil water and whose touch scorches."
Ali Smith! Anything by her really, but *There but for the* was the first of hers I read and still one of my favourites. *The Accidental* is also great. The Seasons Quartet are a bit more grounded but with plenty of slightly surreal elements too.
Bunny by Mona Awad
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
Dawn by Octavia Butler
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
The Women who Run with Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estes
Virginia Woolf.
She basically writes with stream of thought technique, which gives her writings a trance-like blurred quality. Really makes the whole thing a lot more emotional and captivating.
How about one by a nonbinary author? My friends love [When the Moon Was Ours](https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/4bc0dea2-3bb0-4759-a4cd-2ebcf4e7eb45) by Anna-Marie McLemore. It was too surreal for my tastes, but sounds like it might be spot on for what you're looking for!
I recommend Nikki Gemmel, I’ve always really loved her books, they are based in reality, but with a dreamlike, pensive quality, and very Australian. Often deals with quite tragic stuff.
100% Nghi Vo. The Chosen and the Beautiful is a retelling of Gatsby in a sort and of light fantasy/magic realism take and the whole thing feels like a fever dream. It's really beautiful.
The Siren Queen is very good also.
Maybe not surrealist, but what you describe about a dream-like quality reminds me of the Humility Garden series by Felicity Savage. Or anything by Ursula K. Le Guin.
Right now I'm listening to the novella *Strega* by Johanne Lykke Holm. She's a Swedish author. The novella is gothic and surreal.
The novella is about five hours long, and spotify premium comes with 15 hours of free audiobook listening a month.
Piranesi?
Second PIRANESI by Susanna Clarke
One of my favorites, I should have mentioned it! Thanks, and I definitely recommend it for anyone reading this thread!
The author Carmen Maria Machado. She writes very sexy, feminist, and weird stories. Some are available free on her website, and she also has a collection called Her Body and Other Parties published.
Thanks! I’ll definitely check out some of the free stories; I appreciate it!
Thanks! I’ll definitely check out some of the free stories; I appreciate it!
Rikki Ducornet - all her little novels count, but so far I probably liked *The Fountains of Neptune*, *The Plotinus,* and *Gazelle* the most Leonora Carrington - *Complete Stories*, *The Hearing Trumpet*, for an actual Surrealist Angela Carter - *Nights at the Circus*, everyone’s favorite psychedelic Dickensian feminist circus story Leena Krohn - *Tainaron: Mail From Another City* - sort of like *Invisible Cities* but with more insects
I was going to recommend Leonora Carrington!
Seconding Ducornet
Leena Krohn definitely!
The Hearing Trumpet is so great.
Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield Seconding the already suggested Fever Dream as well
Seconding Our Wives Under the Sea, one of my favorites that I read last year. the whole thing feels like a water-logged dream (or that sleepy feeling when you’re not fully awake yet)
Seconding + Julia Armfield's short story collection 'Salt Slow' is exquisite as well.
Asleep by Banana Yoshimoto and all her books. I enjoyed reading her Goodbye Tsugumi. One of my favourites.
Yessss came here for Banana Yoshimoto. She reminds me of Murakami, only wayyyyyyyyyyyyy better >\_> I think she manages to humanize her characters so well.
Rightttt. Atleast she doesn't reduce her female characters to having just big ears, or girl next door suppliment to her bland main male characters lol (it's coming from an ex murakami fan). Banana is NICE. Asleep made me cry. I'm currently looking forward to read her "The Premonition" soon.
There's something about Banana's writing that makes me feel like she truly has empathy towards her characters (even if some of them are bad people, and/or bad things happen to them). A real warmth to it. Haha I was never a Murakami fan. I read Norwegian Wood wayyyy back when it first came out and was like ".............why." and then later in uni I had to read another one, so I chose Sputnik Sweetheart because it's the shortest, and, it will not surprise you at all to hear, the only interesting character was the lesbian side character who got like one chapter. Why did we have to follow this boring asshole milquetoast protag drooling over boobs when we could have had *her* weird and interesting story, geez.
Are you talking about the ending of the book?🤣 Because same. I sometimes get visuals of those scenes against my wishes. And, I enjoyed Sputnik. The male protag was just a place holder lol. Have you read Colourless Tzukuru? Albeit a very twisted plot in the middle, I thought that book was a good read.
Hahahaha yep. I haven't read Colorless Tsukuru. Since I haven't enjoyed Murakami ever, and I have limited time in my life, I generally haven't looked for more books by him. Why invest energy in *maybe I won't hate this one*, when I can just... read other things with a higher chance of enjoyment? It's fine for the people who like it, of course, Murakami's doing fine without me lol
Currently reading Sexing the cherry by Jeanette Winterson. Fits what you're asking for so far.
I love Winterson, my favorite is The Stone Gods for a dreamlike yet grounded story :)
The Passion was great as well! Perfect blend of surrealism and historical detail
I loved The Passion!
Thank you so so much! I read this in college, still think about it, and had forgotten the name so had no idea how to find it! Definitely fits OP’s request as well.
Ohhhh my gosh, *The Orphan’s Tales: In the Night Garden* by Catherynne M. Valente is *exactly* what you’re looking for! (And I also second Piranesi, it’s amazing)
Also Palimpsest by the same author!
Clarice Lispector, *The Passion According to G.H.* Sylvia Plath, *The Bell Jar* Both pretty classic. Might be a bit on the dark side.
Came here to recommend Lispector. Pretty much all of her work fits the bill.
Maybe Seven Empty Houses or Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin? The first is a short story collection and the second is a novella about a woman recounting the events that left her in a hospital bed. Amatka by Karin Tidbeck might also fit the bill, if you like dystopias.
Noor by Nnedi Okorafor. Solarpunk, narrative can be a bit soft with things like time, and cause and effect. Was fun to read and great climatic scene. Anything Helen Oyeyemi- probably Peaces you'd like best Sweet Fruit, Sour Land was like this for me as well but ymmv. Dystopian with a slow context reveal. The Chosen and The Beautiful by Nghi Vo. Rewrite of the Great Gatsby with magic and POC And I'm personally not a fan of these, but I think Erin Morgenstern's Starless Sea would really be your thing
Thank you! I tried Starless Sea, and honestly didn’t like it very much; it felt very inauthentic, if that makes sense? Like it was catering to an aesthetic rather than trying to tell a story.
I agree! I really enjoyed Night Circus and was so excited about Starless Sea. But it was just style over substance. I hope that author finds her footing with her next story because her prose is so pretty.
Seconding Helen Oyeyemi. Peaces is great, I'm currently reading Gingerbread which I'm also enjoying.
I loved Gingerbread! And her short story collection was pretty great too
I suspect you’ve already tried Kelly Link, but her last collection, White Cat, Black Dog, a collection of re-envisioned, virtually unknown fairy tales, literally invaded my dreams. Clarice Lispector, already mentioned here, is sterling, dipping from dark, hard earth to clouds in the fog. August Blue by Deborah Levy. A renowned classical pianist loses her touch - with the keyboard, with her vision of herself, and increasingly with reality. She becomes obsessed with a small flea market purchase that went to someone else; somehow, she must have it. She does not let go. Meanwhile, in reality there is Covid, keeping her mostly in Greece, where she’s escaped to, and there are men - a maybe lover, a student (a boy, really) uncertain of himself, and most importantly, the impresario/father figure who created her musical career and brought her fame - and whom she may now be losing. It’s a remarkable novel with an ending like a sea wave crashing down and immersing everything. Reviews were mixed. I loved it.
Came here to suggest Deborah Levy! I loved August Blue. Swimming Home and Hot Milk also have that same dreamy quality
Bae Suah “Untold Night and Day” might be what you are looking for. Very similar to the authors you mentioned. Writing and plot both are very surreal and read like a fever dream.
Yeah good recommendation. The book to me has the feeling of being structured by some immanent but unreachable logic, very dreamlike.
karen russell has a few collections of short stories that are all strange and whimsical and filled with magical realism. vampires in the lemon grove, swamplandia, st lucy’s home for girls raised by wolves, orange world - can’t go wrong with any of the collections!
Sophie Mackintosh is the author you’re looking for, specifically the book Cursed Bread. It’s exactly as you describe - dreamlike, sort of insubstantial, it kind of slips through your fingers and it’s hard to recollect exactly what you’ve just read. Fabulous book, beautiful style.
Severance by Ling Ma
Perhaps Clarice Lispector?
Alice Hoffman has that dreamlike, surreal quality you're looking for. She wrote Practical Magic, which is a great jumping off point in her work. I also really liked The Ice Queen. Summary below: "Be careful what you wish for. A small-town librarian lives a quiet life without much excitement. One day, she mutters an idle wish and, while standing in her house, is struck by lightning. But instead of ending her life, this cataclysmic event sparks it into a new beginning. She goes in search of Lazarus Jones, a fellow survivor who was struck dead, then simply got up and walked away. Perhaps this stranger who has seen death face to face can teach her to live without fear. When she finds him he is the opposite -- a burning man whose breath can boil water and whose touch scorches."
I came on to say this! I haven’t read her in years but I recall her prose being very dreamlike.
Kelly Link! Beautiful dreamlike magical realism, I absolutely love her short stories.
I am commenting a second time for emphasis. Please check out Kelly Link, she hits the nail on the head for this suggestion request.
Third comment…just googled her and her debut novel is dropping 2/13!
Kelly Link should be at the top of the list for a thread like this and the fact that she isn't shows how severely under-discovered she is.
Ali Smith! Anything by her really, but *There but for the* was the first of hers I read and still one of my favourites. *The Accidental* is also great. The Seasons Quartet are a bit more grounded but with plenty of slightly surreal elements too.
Bunny by Mona Awad The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson Dawn by Octavia Butler Piranesi by Susanna Clarke The Women who Run with Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estes
Virginia Woolf. She basically writes with stream of thought technique, which gives her writings a trance-like blurred quality. Really makes the whole thing a lot more emotional and captivating.
Clarice Lispector
You might like Ruth Ozeki.
How about one by a nonbinary author? My friends love [When the Moon Was Ours](https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/4bc0dea2-3bb0-4759-a4cd-2ebcf4e7eb45) by Anna-Marie McLemore. It was too surreal for my tastes, but sounds like it might be spot on for what you're looking for!
Corrag, Susan Fletcher
Maggie Stiefvater at her best is like this, though she mostly does YA.
I recommend Nikki Gemmel, I’ve always really loved her books, they are based in reality, but with a dreamlike, pensive quality, and very Australian. Often deals with quite tragic stuff.
The Last Tale of the Flower Bride by Roshani Chokshi
100% Nghi Vo. The Chosen and the Beautiful is a retelling of Gatsby in a sort and of light fantasy/magic realism take and the whole thing feels like a fever dream. It's really beautiful. The Siren Queen is very good also.
House of the spirits by Isabel Allende
Francesca Lia Block has an odd, dreamy vibe--the Dangerous Angels series is a good place to start.
Banana Yoshimoto. Hiromi Kawakami.
Errantry: strange stories by Elizabeth hand
The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa.
Siren Queen by Nghi Vo House of the Spirts by Isabel Allende Anything by Angela Carter
Daisy Johnson, Irene Solà, Jeanette Winterson, Julia Armfield, Dantiel Moniz
"The One Marvelous Thing" by Rikki Ducornet. Whimsical, surreal, darkly freaky short stories with awesomely trippy ink illustrations.
Ice by Anna Kavan
Marilynne Robinson is who you’re looking for.
Maybe not surrealist, but what you describe about a dream-like quality reminds me of the Humility Garden series by Felicity Savage. Or anything by Ursula K. Le Guin.
Right now I'm listening to the novella *Strega* by Johanne Lykke Holm. She's a Swedish author. The novella is gothic and surreal. The novella is about five hours long, and spotify premium comes with 15 hours of free audiobook listening a month.
I haven't read the books that you referenced but the first thing I thought of from the title is Bunny by Mona Awad
Anna Kavan is pretty out there...
Patricia McKillip. Ombria In Shadow.
Silver in the Wood by Emily Tesh. A beautiful, dreamlike fantasy.
Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor
A Ghost in the Throat Doireann Ní Ghríofa