
Magical/Realism
Essays on Music, Memory, Fantasy, and Borders
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Narrated by:
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Vanessa Angélica Villarreal
About this listen
Longlisted for the National Book Award
Longlisted for the 2024 National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism
A brilliant, singular collection of essays that looks to music, fantasy, and pop culture—from Beyoncé to Game of Thrones—to excavate and reimagine what has been disappeared by migration and colonialism.
Upon becoming a new mother, Vanessa Angélica Villarreal was called to Mexico to reconnect with her ancestors and recover her grandmother’s story, only to return to the sudden loss of her marriage, home, and reality.
In Magical/Realism, Villarreal crosses into the erasure of memory and self, fragmented by migration, borders, and colonial and intimate violence, reconstructing her story with pieces of American pop culture, and the music, video games, and fantasy that have helped her make sense of it all.
The border between the real and imagined is a speculative space where we can remember, or re-world, what has been lost—and each chapter engages in this essential project of world-building. In one essay, Villarreal examines her own gender performativity through Nirvana and Selena; in another, she offers a radical but crucial racial reading of Jon Snow in Game of Thrones; and throughout the collection, she explores how fantasy can help us interpret and heal when grief feels insurmountable. She reflects on the moments of her life that are too painful to remember—her difficult adolescence, her role as the eldest daughter of Mexican immigrants, her divorce—and finds a way to archive her history and map her future(s) with the hope and joy of fantasy and magical thinking.
Magical/Realism is a wise, tender, and essential collection that carves a path toward a new way of remembering and telling our stories—broadening our understanding of what memoir and cultural criticism can be.
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Critic reviews
A Best Book of 2024 (so far) by Book Riot
Most Anticipated by Book Riot, Hip Latina, Electric Lit, Screen Rant, and Write or Die
"A revelation… to be studied, savored, re-read and discussed”—Melissa Castillo Planas, Latinx Pop Magazine
“This collection of essays is a modern exploration of topics such as loss, colonialism, migration and gender through the lens of pop culture. It provides a reflective narrative that prompts readers to reconsider their perspectives on these subjects.”—Los Angeles Times, Des Los Reads
"Magical/Realism is the perfect non-fiction work for fiction lovers. Vanessa Angélica Villarreal's essays explore her journey of reconnection with her heritage and ancestors in Mexico while using current popular media, like Game of Thrones, to explore cultural erasure and the damages of migration and colonialism."—Screen Rant
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- Length: 4 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Tracing a loose arc from Edwidge Danticat’s childhood to the COVID-19 pandemic and recent events in Haiti, the essays gathered in We’re Alone include personal narrative, reportage, and tributes to mentors and heroes such as Toni Morrison, Paule Marshall, Gabriel García Márquez, and James Baldwin that explore several abiding themes: environmental catastrophe, the traumas of colonialism, motherhood, and the complexities of resilience.
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Always a story to tell
- By TAE on 10-09-24
By: Edwidge Danticat
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Open Water
- By: Caleb Azumah Nelson
- Narrated by: Caleb Azumah Nelson
- Length: 4 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Two young people meet at a pub in South East London. Both are Black British, both won scholarships to private schools where they struggled to belong, both are now artists - he a photographer, she a dancer - trying to make their mark in a city that by turns celebrates and rejects them. Tentatively, tenderly, they fall in love. But two people who seem destined to be together can still be torn apart by fear and violence.
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Second person POV releases poignant perspective
- By Storytellersrus on 09-25-21
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How to Win an Information War
- The Propagandist Who Outwitted Hitler
- By: Peter Pomerantsev
- Narrated by: Matthew Waterson
- Length: 8 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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In the summer of 1941, Hitler ruled Europe from the Atlantic to the Black Sea. Britain was struggling to combat his powerful propaganda machine, crowing victory and smearing his enemies as liars and manipulators over his frequent radio speeches, blasted out on loudspeakers and into homes. British claims that Hitler was dangerous had little impact against this wave of disinformation. Except for the broadcasts of someone called Der Chef, a German who questioned Nazi doctrine, and most importantly, a character created by the British propagandist Thomas Sefton Delmer, a unique weapon in the war.
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fascinating story
- By Mark on 03-19-24
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My Side of the River
- A Memoir
- By: Elizabeth Camarillo Gutierrez
- Narrated by: Elizabeth Camarillo Gutierrez
- Length: 6 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Born to Mexican immigrants south of the Rillito River in Tucson, Arizona, Elizabeth had the world at her fingertips. She was preparing to enter her freshman year of high school as the number one student when suddenly, her own country took away the most important right a child has: the right to have a family. When her parents’ visas expired and they were forced to return to Mexico, Elizabeth was left responsible for her younger brother, as well as her education.
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A well known story
- By Enedina Hernandez on 03-25-25
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Defectors
- The Rise of the Latino Far Right and What It Means for America
- By: Paola Ramos
- Narrated by: Victoria Villarreal
- Length: 9 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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An award-winning journalist's exploration of how race, identity and political trauma have influenced the rise in far-right sentiment among Latinos, and how this group can shape American politics.
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Regretting what I taught my kids
- By Anonymous User on 10-17-24
By: Paola Ramos
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The Book of Love
- A Novel
- By: Kelly Link
- Narrated by: January LaVoy
- Length: 23 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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In the acclaimed first novel from short story virtuoso and Pulitzer Prize finalist Kelly Link, three teenagers become pawns in a supernatural power struggle.
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Held me hostage for way too long without payoff
- By Fay on 12-25-24
By: Kelly Link
What listeners say about Magical/Realism
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Aries Lopez
- 09-06-24
Villarreals writing is truly magical!
Beautiful story-telling! Villarreal’s realism is raw and harsh at times, yet full of tenderness and magical vision.
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- Millican
- 06-02-24
I died a thousand times
yet without fail Vanessa's words were there with a cure wounds or revivify. A voice so strong and honest yet unflinching in showing the beauty and tragedy of this cruel world. The power of tradition and magic that heals, the story that music weaves through our lives, the colors that bring hope, and the violence that shatters our homes are all weaved into a single heartbeat that will forever live inside of me. I have been changed.
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1 person found this helpful