Magic for Beginners, Kelly Link
Magic for Beginners, Kelly Link
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Magic for Beginners
Stories

Author: Kelly Link

Narrator: Mark Bramhall, Cassandra Campbell, Danny Campbell, Robbie Daymond, Kirby Heyborne, Rebecca Lowman, Arthur Morey, Lorna Raver, Meera Simhan

Unabridged: 10 hr 45 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 07/01/2014

Synopsis

From MacArthur “Genius Grant” fellow Kelly Link, bestselling author of White Cat, Black Dog and The Book of Love, an “eerie and engrossing” (The Washington Post), “dazzling” (The New York Times Book Review) collection of short stories
 
“[These] exquisite stories mix the aggravations and epiphanies of everyday life with the stuff that legends, dreams and nightmares are made of.”—Laura Miller, Salon, “Best Books of the Decade”
 
LOCUS AWARD WINNER • A TIME AND SEATTLE TIMES BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR
 
One of the most critically acclaimed collections of our time, Magic for Beginners is an exquisite, dreamlike dispatch from a virtuoso storyteller who can do seemingly anything. Kelly Link reconstructs modern life through an intoxicating prism, conjuring up unforgettable worlds with humor and humanity. These stories are at once ingenious and deeply moving. They leave the reader astonished and exhilarated.

Includes an exclusive conversation between Kelly Link and Joe Hill

About The Author

MacArthur “Genius Grant” fellow Kelly Link is the author of the collections Get in Trouble, Stranger Things Happen, Magic for Beginners, and Pretty Monsters. She and Gavin J. Grant have co-edited a number of anthologies, including multiple volumes of The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror and, for young adults, Monstrous Affections. She is the co-founder of Small Beer Press. Her short stories have been published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, The Best American Short Stories, and Prize Stories: The O. Henry Awards. She hasalso received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. Link was born in Miami, Florida. She currently lives with her husband and daughter in Northampton, Massachusetts.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Oriana on July 08, 2013

Reading Kelly Link makes me wonder why anyone else ever tries to write anything. Honestly. I mean, I'm sorry to have to say this to all the people who write short stories and everything, but "Stone Animals" is the absolute very best short story that has ever been written. Oh, wait, except for "Lull"......more

Goodreads review by Maciek on January 15, 2015

Kelly Link writes what I should love - quirky, whimsical, creative and fantastical ideas with often dark imagery - but somehow all this mix of interesting things never ends up being a story. Most entries in Magic in Beginners will draw you in with a unique idea, image or scene; this is the case with......more

Goodreads review by Mona on May 20, 2015

Weird Modern Fairy Tales for Adults by a Writer with a Unique Voice 3.5 stars My introduction to slipstream short story writer Kelly Link was her recently issued Get in Trouble. I got off on the wrong foot with that short story collection and did not finish it. I'm glad I gave her another chance. I lik......more

Goodreads review by Dr. Cat on August 18, 2024

So. Kelly Link is a brilliant author of magical realism. I kind of hate that term. Magical realism. Because it's redundant. Magic (if you're doing it right) always feels real. Nothing feels more real than magic. I'll get around to that later. In the mean time: Kelly Link's stories blur the line betwee......more

Goodreads review by Celeste on February 14, 2019

You can find this review and more at Novel Notions. Something I’ve noticed over the course of my recent reading life is that, if you’re in the mood for weird, you should definitely look into short story collections. Some of the strangest and most memorable fiction I’ve read in the past five years or......more

Quotes

“A sorceress to be reckoned with.”—The New York Times Book Review

“[Kelly] Link’s stories . . . play in a place few writers go, a netherworld between literature and fantasy, Alice Munro and J. K. Rowling, and Link finds truths there that most authors wouldn’t dare touch.”—Lev Grossman, Time
 
“She is a sorcerer. She is our greatest living fabulist.”—Carmen Maria Machado

“Funny, scary, surprising and powerfully moving within the span of a single story or even a single sentence.”—Karen Russell, The Miami Herald
 
“This is what certain readers live for: fiction that makes the world instead of merely mimicking it.”—Audrey Niffenegger
 
“[These] exquisite stories mix the aggravations and epiphanies of everyday life with the stuff that legends, dreams and nightmares are made of.”—Laura Miller, Salon, Best Books of the Decade
 
“A major talent . . . Like George Saunders, [Link] can’t dismiss the hidden things that tap on our windows at night.”—The Boston Globe
 
“The most darkly playful voice in American fiction.”—Michael Chabon
 
“I think she is the most impressive writer of her generation.”—Peter Straub
 
“Link’s world is one to savor. [Grade:] A”—Entertainment Weekly

“Intricate, wildly imaginative and totally wonderful . . . will fill you with awe and joy.”—NPR

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