Metaphysical Fiction

Best-selling author Carlos Ruiz Zafón conceived of this collection of stories as an appreciation to the countless admirers who joined him on the extraordinary journey that began with The Shadow of the Wind. Comprising 11 stories, most of them never before published in English, The City of Mist offers the listener compelling characters, unique situations, and a gothic atmosphere reminiscent of his beloved Cemetery of Forgotten Books quartet.

“At one point they tried to calculate when time began, when exactly the earth had been created,” begins Time Shelter’s enigmatic narrator, who goes unnamed. “In the mid-seventeenth century, the Irish bishop Ussher calculated not only the exact year, but also a starting date: October 22, 4,004 years before Christ.” But for our narrator, time as he knows it begins when he meets Gaustine, a “vagrant in time” who has distanced his life from contemporary reality by reading old news, wearing tattered old clothes, and haunting the lost avenues of the twentieth century.

They've infiltrated homes in Hong Kong, shops in Vancouver, the streets of in Sierra Leone, town squares in Oaxaca, schools in Tel Aviv, bedrooms in Indiana. They're everywhere. They're here. They're us. They're not pets, or ghosts, or robots. They're real people, but how can a person living in Berlin walk freely through the living room of someone in Sydney? How can someone in Bangkok have breakfast with your children in Buenos Aires, without your knowing? Especially when these people are completely anonymous, unknown, unfindable.

Ethan McQuarry is a young lighthouse keeper on a tiny island, the rugged outcropping of easternmost Cape Breton Island on the Atlantic Ocean. A man without any family, he sees himself as a silent vigilant, performing his duties courageously year after year, with an admirable sense of responsibility.

It’s the year 2022. Dani Peterson has been walking in the west of Ireland, conducting historical research for her dissertation. But when she seeks shelter from a storm in Aideen O’Brien’s car, she gets more history than she bargained for. Aideen is a Time Link, with secret access to time travel technology. She sends Dani to 1978 to meet a younger version of herself. The two fall in love and Dani joins Aideen in her work. Their boss is a man from 2253 named Charles Burke, who says his mission is to save the future.

Luc stood in the doorway to the library. I was a governess, teaching his two young sons about science and songs, language and love. They recently lost their mother. But their generous, attentive father held them so contentedly in the immensity of his embrace, they seemed not to miss her. Thus begins Give, 1671 AD. In this fourth volume of the Love Hope Give series, Graciella and Luc come together after she reincarnates without him again and again in order to heal and forgive the assaults on their love 1,500 years earlier. She is the daughter of a Venetian senator and his courtesan, left in ...

A ticking time bomb surges beneath the Earth’s crust. Can a young mother survive a global catastrophe and lead humanity to a new beginning? British Columbia. Karen Black doesn’t need one more problem. Engaged in a fierce custody battle, a bitter divorce, and trying to train for a marathon, dealing with her six-year-old daughter acting out at school seems like too much. But an impromptu camping trip to settle the girl changes the single mom’s perspective when the local volcano erupts, laying everything within a hundred miles to waste. When the cataclysm sets off a planet-wide string of...

Pull up a stool and have a drink with the vacationing Father of Lies while he provides his unbiased take on topics like the truth, free will, and the seduction of the damned. It'll have you laughing, reflecting, and wondering about karma as the stories unfold and you see yourself within them.

How did Hank Boyd get his start in the world of archaeology? The Hank Boyd Origins will give readers a look into the years preceding the events of BLOOD & SAND, starting with THE CURSED PHARAOH. Renowned historian, Dr. William Boyd, and his rebellious son, Hank, are called in to investigate an exciting discovery after the tomb of an Egyptian monarch is located. What they find is equal parts perplexing and alarming as Hank contracts a long-dormant virus hidden within the crypt, one that is warned to be a "scourge against humanity." Now, the father and son duo, along with a close friend and ...

Hailed by Thomas Pynchon as "graceful, dark, authentic, and funny," George Saunders gives us, in his inventive and beloved voice, this best-selling collection of stories set against a warped, hilarious, and terrifyingly recognizable American landscape.

July, 1940. Blitz-ridden London: Marnie Fern’s life is torn apart when her grandfather is killed in an air raid. But once she discovers that he’d been working undercover as a radio operative – or pianist – for the Dutch resistance, Marnie knows she must complete his mission – no matter the cost. Nazi-occupied Amsterdam: At the other end of the wireless, fellow pianist Corrie Bakker is caught in a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse as she desperately tries to keep her loved ones out of the line of fire – even if it means sacrificing herself.

As Lan lies dying, she makes a promise that binds her long into the Beyond. A decade later her teenage granddaughter is caught up in an international storm of outrage that unleashes the rage of a whole, failed generation. For one shining fragment of time, the world is with her. But then the backlash begins, and soon she and her family are besieged by the press, facing the all-powerful wrath of the old establishment whose only understanding is power-over, not power-with.

Following the tragic death of his sister, 1-year-old Dill's life changes forever. In an attempt to escape their grief, Dill and his parents move to his grandmother's remote cottage in the countryside. Isolated from his family, who are struggling to come to terms with their loss, Dill spends his time exploring the wild landscape with his trusty spaniel, Bramble. He soon learns that life in his new home, the Dip-n-Dells, is anything but lonely.

The War has begun. Old alliances must be strengthened and new ones forged. But who can you trust, when you’re still learning to trust yourself As every magic-user is hunted and The Unforgiven’s return known, Brodanna descends into chaos making Katanya Leshi’s mission behind enemy lines even more dangerous. Not only must she keep one step ahead of the enemy, but she must also fight her growing feelings for Reyn Landress. The one man an assassin should never fall for. She was forged in fire, but she can still burn. Far away from her friend Mara Lars is struggling to deal with being the ...

Jade French is baffled when she inherits her grandfather Zipacna’s home in Chi’país, Mexico. She’s neither seen nor heard from him in twenty-five years. If he hadn’t cared enough to keep in touch, what kind of place could it be? And why didn’t he leave it to her father? Friend Mari urges her to at least check things out. Jade argues that a trip to Mexico is out of the question right now. She’s too busy climbing the corporate ladder. Mari persists. No surprise: she didn’t inherit a home; it’s a rundown hotel. Big surprise: she decides to stay. More surprises are in store: ...

The Globe goes beyond science to explore the development of the human mind. Terry Pratchett and his acclaimed co-authors Ian Stewart and Jack Cohen combine the tale of the wizards rewriting human history with discussions of the origins and evolution of culture, language, art, and science, offering a fascinating and brilliantly original view of the world we live in.

It’s 2125 and aliens live among us on earth. They are Verndari - the defenders. At the turn of the 22nd century they came, with solutions for world hunger and disease, and with ground-breaking technology beyond anything mankind could ever imagine, but they are not what they seem. Unpredictable… By day – Marly Sparks has her feet firmly planted on the ground, as an upwardly mobile journalist at one of the leading media houses in New York City. But at night – She flies… Through unimaginable, timeless dimensions of alternating terror…and utter delight! Undeniable… In four years, ...

Evil lurks in the desolate Barrens of Krymzyn. For millions of Eras, predators with insatiable cravings have prowled the wasteland. When a traitor of the Delta enters their realm, the solitary beasts may finally have a leader to unite them. As the new order emerges from the Barrens, Chase and Sash begin their lives together. Chase fights to prove he belongs in Krymzyn while the powers inside Sash flourish in ways no one could have imagined. But a vengeance from the wasteland is soon unleashed upon them. Trapped deep in the Barrens, Chase's only escape is into the Infinite Expanse. Unaware ...

In 1986, twenty-year-old Syvert Løyning returns from the military to his mother’s home in southern Norway. One evening, his dead father comes to him in a dream. Realizing that he doesn’t really know who his father was, Syvert begins to investigate his life and finds clues pointing to the Soviet Union. What he learns changes his past and undermines the entire notion of who he is. But when his mother becomes ill, and he must care for his little brother, Joar, on his own, he no longer has time or space for lofty speculations.

Sarah was just trying to stop her dungeon from collapsing. Now she’s rewriting reality. What began as a bureaucratic headache has exploded into metaphysical mayhem. As a hybrid dungeon core with a snark problem and too much cosmic power, Sarah is evolving into something no one—kingdoms, liches, or the laws of magic—can define. The magical Compact is cracking. Archives are collapsing. And the Lich Lord Kravix? He’s one ritual away from turning the world into his ascension playground. Armed with a crumbling dungeon, glitchy golden glyphs, and a desperate need for five minutes of peace...