Recommendations based on "The Magus A Novel"

Winner of the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, 'The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay' is a heart-wrenching story of escape, love and comic-book heroes set in Prague, New York and the Arctic - from the author of 'Wonder Boys'. One night in 1939, Josef Kavalier shuffles into his cousin Sam Clay's cramped New York bedroom, his nerve-racking escape from Prague finally achieved. Little does he realise that this is the beginning of an extraordinary friendship and even more fruitful business partnership. Together, they create a comic strip called 'The Escapist', its superhero a Nazi-busting saviour who liberates the oppressed around the world. 'The Escapist' makes their fortune, but Joe can think of only one thing: how can he effect a real-life escape, and free his family from the tyranny of Hitler? Michael Chabon's exceptional novel is a thrilling tight-rope walk between high comedy and bitter tragedy, and confirms his position as one of the most inventive and daring of contemporary American writers. In Joe Kavalier and Sam Clay, he has created two unforgettable characters bound together by love, family and cartoons.

THESE NEWCOMERS ARE DIFFERENT. THEY WILL CHANGE EVERYTHING.For fans of The Essex Serpent and The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock.‘By far my favourite book of of the year’ Guardian‘One of only two novels I've ever loved whose main characters are not human’ Barbara KingsolverOne cold night, two newcomers emerge onto the streets of 1899 New York, and it is never the same again.But these two are more than strangers to this land, they are strangers to this world. From the depths of folkloric history come Chava the golem, a creature made of clay, brought to life by a disgraced rabbi and Ahmad, a djinni, born in the ancient Syrian desert and trapped in an old copper flask released accidentally by a tinsmith in a Lower Manhattan shop.Two companions who were never meant to be released, and never meant to meet. And when they do, their opposing natures will be sealed by a special bond, but one that is threatened by watching eyes, roaming owners and a misunderstanding world.A glittering gem of a novel, as spell-binding as it is compelling, The Golem and The Djinni asks us what we’re made of and how we can break free.

Felix, a Jewish boy in Poland in 1942, is hiding from the Nazis in a Catholic orphanage. The only problem is that he doesn't know anything about the war, and thinks he's only in the orphanage while his parents travel and try to salvage their bookselling business. And when he thinks his parents are in danger, Felix sets off to warn them--straight into the heart of Nazi-occupied Poland. To Felix, everything is a story: Why did he get a whole carrot in his soup? It must be sign that his parents are coming to get him. Why are the Nazis burning books? They must be foreign librarians sent to clean out the orphanage's outdated library. But as Felix's journey gets increasingly dangerous, he begins to see horrors that not even stories can explain.Despite his grim suroundings, Felix never loses hope. Morris Gleitzman takes a painful subject and expertly turns it into a story filled with love, friendship, and even humor.

Brian Attebery's "strategy of fantasy" include not only the writer's strategies for inventing believable impossibiltes, but also the reader's strategies for enjoying, challenging, and conspiring with the text. Drawing on a number of current literary theories (but avoiding most of their jargon), Attebery makes a case for fantasy as a significant movement within postmodern literature rather than as a simple exercise of nostalgia. Attebury examines recent and classic fantasies by Ursula K. Le Guin, John Crowley, J.R.R. Tolkien, Diana Wynne Jones, and Gene Wolfe, among others. In both its popular and postmodern incarnations, fantasic fiction exhibits a remarkable capacity for reinventing narrative concentions. Attebery shows how plots, characters, settings, storytelling frameworks, gender divisions, and references to cultural texts such as history and science are all called into question the moment the marvelous is admited into a story.

"Hog" Coolidge, an otherworldly actor, sends Sherwood into the past to investigate the history of his small Montana town, once visited by extraterrestrials and now suffering a strange malaise. By the author of Imajica. 100,000 first printing. $100,000 ad/promo.

Pod, Homily, and Arrietty Clock -- the family of tiny Borrowers -- think they have at last found an ideal home. They've moved into a house in a miniature village built as a hobby by a retired railroad man. The village is the perfect size for the Borrowers, and after the hardships they've faced, the Clocks gratefully settle into the luxury of having a "proper" house. The easy life makes them careless. Or, rather, it makes Arrietty careless. She befriends a "human bean," and the next thing Arrietty knows, she and her family have been kidnapped. Their captors are a greedy married couple, called the Platters, who have big plans for the little people. They have created their own miniature village in a glass case and plan to imprison the Borrowers within -- like animals in a zoo -- for the rest of their lives.

Frankie and his team love playing football. There's always time for a game. But when they win an old football at a carnival they're going to be transported to a magical world of football they never knew existed! Can Frankie and his team beat the Pirate Pillagers and make their way home?

Muffy is so sure that Francine cannot be nice for an entire week that she bets her Princess Peach watch on it, and now it is up to Francine to keep her temper.

The second short story set in Peter Newman’s incredible world of THE VAGRANT. 'It's a story that grabbed me by the scruff of the neck and refused to let go...' Fantasy Faction

As soon as he sees Trickster, the new horse at Quinn’s Stables, David knows he’s found the horse he was born to ride. But David’s got a reputation as a troublemaker . . . and Trickster’s still recuperating from an accident. David is determined to clear his name and prove to Mr. Quinn that he’s worth taking a chance on. Can he reach his goal?