Check It Out: Dive in to magical realism, fables

There’s a delightful mystery called “The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra” by Vaseem Khan that weaves in a touch of magical realism. Magical realism refers to a story that takes place in the real world, but has some fantastical elements. To paraphrase Miracle Max in “The Princess Bride,” it’s only mostly true. Founded by Latinx authors, magical realism is often associated with their cultural histories, and may contain political elements. Fabulism is similar, but is more global and also uses more elements of fables or fairy tales. In both of these styles, magic is not explained, as though it is within our expectation that it would occur. By contrast, surrealism as a subgenre contains illogical and/or dreamlike narratives. All three of these subgenres have similarities, and many ti