[Many thanks to Peter Jordens for bringing this item to our attention.] Back in March, Ayanna Lloyd Banwo (Kobo blog) had shared her recommendations on “must-read magical Caribbean novels.” On her list, we find Claire of the Sea Light, Edwidge Danticat; The Frequency of Magic, Anthony Joseph; How to Escape from a Leper Colony, Tiphanie Yanique; Marvellous Equations of the Dread: A Novel in Bass Riddim, Marcia Douglas; Cereus Blooms at Night, Shani Mootoo; and her own debut novel, When We Were Birds. Go to Kobo for a brief description of each novel.

Novelist Ayanna Lloyd Banwo, author of When We Were Birds, shares a handful of her favourite Caribbean novels that draw on themes of magic and the supernatural.

When we think of magical realism the first books that probably come to mind are those of Latin American writers, like Márquez, Allende, and Borges. But the Caribbean has a rich and varied magical realism tradition in its literature as well that blurs the lines between the natural and the supernatural, upends our understandings of time and space and will stay with you long after you turn the final page.

From the speculative to the spectral, the haunt of history to the lush sorcery of language these are just five (of a long list) of my favorite Caribbean novels that breathe magic. [. . .]

For full article and book descriptions, see https://www.kobo.com/blog/must-read-magical-caribbean-novels

[Photo of Epiphyllum oxypetalum flower by Imuzak https://commons.wikimedia.org/…]