10 fairy-tale–inspired books

The Last Illusion by Porochista Khakpour (Bloomsbury USA, $17.99)

Khakpour’s new novel retells a Persian myth about a boy raised as a bird, transposing the urgently spirited story to post-9/11 New York.

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The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker (Harper Perennial, $15.99)

More candidly magical than many modern fables, this debut portrays a mystical friendship between a golem, crafted of clay, and a jinni, born of fire.

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Boy, Snow, Bird by Helen Oyeyemi (Riverhead Books, $27.95)

Brilliantly reimagining the familiar tale of an evil stepmother—and adding a girl named Snow Whitman—Oyeyemi’s novel examines the power of modern aesthetic obsession.

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Duplex by Kathryn Davis (Graywolf Press, $24)

Davis often favors the fabled in her work, and she takes this practice to the extreme in Duplex, filling the story with a sorcerer and robots, blending elements of both fairy tales and science fiction.

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Autobiography of a Corpse by Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky (NYRB Classics, $15.95)

The early-20th-century Ukrainian author harnesses all the blood and bleakness of old tales, giving us autonomous body parts, transmogrification and a man compelled to bite his own elbow.

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Fairyland series by Catherynne M. Valente (Feiwel & Friends)

Valente has created her own “mythpunk” genre, weaving together steampunk, mythology and folklore; her still-in-progress Fairyland series follows the adventures of a young Nebraskan girl who, after meeting the Green Wind, travels to a magical land. For a taste, read a novella set in the same world here.

Get book 1 of the Fairyland series on Amazon

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The Color Master: Stories by Aimee Bender (Doubleday, $25.95)

Bender skillfully mingles the mythic, tragic and comic in these stories. In one, for example, an ugly woman has her heart broken after her ogre-husband is conned into eating their children.

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The Seamstress and the Wind by César Aira (New Directions, $12.95)

An adventure tale through Buenos Aires and Patagonia, Aira’s small hilarious novel begins when a seamstress is kidnapped and the wild Southern wind falls in love with her.

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In the House Upon the Dirt Between the Lake and the Woods by Matt Bell (Soho Press, $15)

From the very title, Bell’s debut suggests a fantastical land; it delivers a grim, magical story of parenthood and loss.

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My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me: Forty New Fairy Tales edited by Kate Bernheimer (Penguin, $18)

If the title weren’t enticing enough, this collection delights in reinventing classic stories, featuring authors like Michael Cunningham, Kelly Link, Lydia Millet and Neil Gaiman.

Get My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me: Forty New Fairy Tales on Amazon