Wonders of the Invisible World

The captivating Stonewall Honor-winning novel of love, family, and ghosts of the past Aidan Lockwood lives in a sleepy farming town, day after unremarkable day. But when Jarrod, his former best friend, suddenly moves back home, Aidan begins to see clearly for the first time—not only to feelings that go beyond mere friendship, but to a world that is haunted by the stories of his past. Visions from this invisible world come to him unbidden: a great-grandfather on the field of battle; his own father, stumbling upon an unspeakable tragedy; and a mysterious young boy, whose whispered words may be at the heart of the curse that holds Aidan’s family in its grip. Now, Aidan must find his way between the past and the present to protect those he loves, and to keep the invisible world at bay. Stonewall Honor Winner ★ “The unpredictability of curses, magic, and love are inexorably entwined in this gracefully written story.” —Publishers Weekly, Starred “The complexity of the pairing of real and the unreal . . . is striking, and rather haunting.” —Tor.com “A wonder itself—a coming-of-age, coming-out, and crossing-into-the-mystic novel all rolled into one.” —Tom McNeal, National Book Award finalist for Far Far Away “Brilliant storytelling that unearths new intersections of love and magic.” —Scott Westerfeld, bestselling author of Uglies and Zeroes “If you don’t want a book with magic, mystery, lying parents, ancient curses, and true, true love (plus wonderful writing), then I’m not sure I care to know you. But if you do, then Wonders of the Invisible World is the book you’ve been waiting for.” —Karen Joy Fowler, author of The Jane Austen Book Club

Teen & Young Adult

Barzak, Christopher

Literature & Fiction

Knopf Books for Young Readers

The captivating Stonewall Honor-winning novel of love, family, and ghosts of the past Aidan Lockwood lives in a sleepy farming town, day after unremarkable day. But when Jarrod, his former best friend, suddenly moves back home, Aidan begins to see clearly for the first time—not only to feelings that go beyond mere friendship, but to a world that is haunted by the stories of his past. Visions from this invisible world come to him unbidden: a great-grandfather on the field of battle; his own father, stumbling upon an unspeakable tragedy; and a mysterious young boy, whose whispered words may be at the heart of the curse that holds Aidan’s family in its grip. Now, Aidan must find his way between the past and the present to protect those he loves, and to keep the invisible world at bay. Stonewall Honor Winner ★ “The unpredictability of curses, magic, and love are inexorably entwined in this gracefully written story.” —Publishers Weekly, Starred “The complexity of the pairing of real and the unreal . . . is striking, and rather haunting.” —Tor.com “A wonder itself—a coming-of-age, coming-out, and crossing-into-the-mystic novel all rolled into one.” —Tom McNeal, National Book Award finalist for Far Far Away “Brilliant storytelling that unearths new intersections of love and magic.” —Scott Westerfeld, bestselling author of Uglies and Zeroes “If you don’t want a book with magic, mystery, lying parents, ancient curses, and true, true love (plus wonderful writing), then I’m not sure I care to know you. But if you do, then Wonders of the Invisible World is the book you’ve been waiting for.” —Karen Joy Fowler, author of The Jane Austen Book Club From the Hardcover edition.

For fans of Patrick Ness and Tom McNeal comes a page-turning novel that’s part ghost story, part love story. Aidan Lockwood lives in a sleepy farming community known for its cattle ranches and not much else. That is, until Jarrod, a friend he hasn’t seen in years, moves back to town. It’s Jarrod who opens Aidan’s eyes to events he’s long since forgotten, and who awakes in him feelings that go beyond mere friendship. But as Aidan’s memories return, so do some unsettling truths about his family. As Aidan begins to probe into long-buried secrets, the lines between the past and the present, tales and truths, friends and lovers begin to blur, and Aidan will need to confront a family curse before he can lay claim to his life once more. “Brilliant storytelling that unearths new intersections of love and magic.” —Scott Westerfeld, New York Times bestselling author of Zeroes “The unpredictability of curses, magic, and love are inexorably entwined in this gracefully written story.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review “A captivating exploration of the power of place, family, memory, and time itself.” —Kirkus Reviews “Barzak expertly balances magical realism, historical flashbacks, and contemporary teen romance in Aidan’s journey of self-discovery.” —Booklist

Random House Children"s Books

The Gone Away Place

From Stonewall Honor author Christopher Barzak comes a haunting novel of love and loss, in which a series of tornadoes rips through a small midwest town, forever altering the lives of those who live there. Ellie heads up her high school yearbook, and until the tornadoes come, her biggest worry is how to raise enough money to print them. But since the day when a rash of powerful tornadoes touched down in Newfoundland, Ohio--killing more than half of the students in her school, not to mention dozens more people throughout the town--she's been haunted: by the ghosts of her best friends, by the boy next door, even by her boyfriend. And the living are haunting her too, all those left behind in the storm's wake to cope with the "gone away" pieces in their lives. A chance encounter with one ghost leads Ellie to discover a way to free the spirits that have been lingering since the storm, and she learns that she's not the only one seeing the ghosts--it's a town-wide epidemic.

NOW THE MAJOR MOTION PICTURE JAMIE MARKS IS DEAD Part thriller, part ghost tale, part love story, One for Sorrow is a novel as timeless as The Catcher in the Rye and as hauntingly lyrical as The Lovely Bones. Christopher Barzak’s stunning debut tells of a teenage boy’s coming-of-age that begins with a shocking murder and ends with a reason to hope. Adam McCormick had just turned fifteen when the body was found in the woods. It is the beginning of an autumn that will change his life forever. Jamie Marks was a boy a lot like Adam, a boy no one paid much attention to—a boy almost no one would truly miss. And for the first time, Adam feels he has a purpose. Now, more than ever, Jamie needs a friend. But the longer Adam holds on to Jamie’s ghost, the longer he keeps his friend tethered to a world where he no longer belongs . . . and the weaker Adam’s own ties to the living become. Now, to find his way back, Adam must learn for himself what it truly means to be alive. Praise for One for Sorrow “Christopher Barzak’s sympathy and humor, his awareness, his easeful vernacular storytelling, are extraordinary, and his mournful, unforgettable teenagers drive us deep into the land of the dead practically before we've even fastened our seatbelts.”—Jonathan Lethem, author of Motherless Brooklyn “An amazing, original debut from an amazing, original writer. One for Sorrow may be the most haunting ghost story I’ve ever read.”—Karen Joy Fowler, author of The Jane Austen Book Club “An uncommonly good book with brains, heart, and bravery to spare. Readers who don’t find themselves in sympathy with Barzak’s characters were never adolescents themselves.”—Kelly Link, author of Magic for Beginners “An honest and uncanny ride through the shadows between grief and acceptance. This is how real magic works.”—Scott Westerfeld, author of Uglies and Extras

One For Sorrow: A Novel

United States

Random House Publishing Group

In this haunting, richly woven novel of modern life in Japan, the author of the acclaimed debut One for Sorrow explores the ties that bind humanity across the deepest divides. Here is a Murakamiesque jewel box of intertwined narratives in which the lives of several strangers are gently linked through love, loss, and fate. On a train filled with quietly sleeping passengers, a young man’s life is forever altered when he is miraculously seen by a blind man. In a quiet town an American teacher who has lost her Japanese lover to death begins to lose her own self. On a remote road amid fallow rice fields, four young friends carefully take their own lives—and in that moment they become almost as one. In a small village a disaffected American teenager stranded in a strange land discovers compassion after an encounter with an enigmatic red fox, and in Tokyo a girl named Love learns the deepest lessons about its true meaning from a coma patient lost in dreams of an affair gone wrong. From the neon colors of Tokyo, with its game centers and karaoke bars, to the bamboo groves and hidden shrines of the countryside, these souls and others mingle, revealing a profound tale of connection—uncovering the love we share without knowing. Exquisitely perceptive and deeply affecting, Barzak’s artful storytelling deftly illuminates the inner lives of those attempting to find—or lose—themselves in an often incomprehensible world.

The Love We Share Without Knowing: A Novel

Bantam]

LIGHTSPEED is an online science fiction and fantasy magazine. In its pages, you will find science fiction: from near-future, sociological soft SF, to far-future, star-spanning hard SF—and fantasy: from epic fantasy, sword-and-sorcery, and contemporary urban tales, to magical realism, science-fantasy, and folktales. Funded as a stretch goal of LIGHTSPEED’s Queers Destroy Science Fiction! Kickstarter campaign, this month we’re presenting a special one-off issue of our otherwise discontinued sister-magazine, FANTASY, called Queers Destroy Fantasy!: an all-fantasy extravaganza entirely written—and edited!—by queer creators. Here’s what we’ve got lined up for you in this special issue: Original fantasy—edited by Christopher Barzak—by Catherynne M. Valente, Kai Ashante Wilson, Carlea Holl-Jensen, and Richard Bowes. Reprints—selected by Liz Gorinsky—by Caitlin R. Kiernan, Austin Bunn, Shweta Narayan, and Nicola Griffith. Nonfiction articles—edited by Matthew Cheney—by merritt kopas, Matthew Cheney, Keguro Macharia, Ekaterina Sedia, Mary Anne Mohanraj, and Ellen Kushner. Plus an original cover illustration by Priscilla Kim and original interior illustrations by Goñi Montes, Odera Igbokwe, Sam Schechter, Elizabeth Leggett, and Vlada Monakhova.

Fantasy Magazine, December 2015 (Queers Destroy Fantasy! Special Issue)

Science Fiction & Fantasy

Valente, Catherynne M.

Bowes, Richard

GRIFFITH, NICOLA

Kiernan, Caitlìn R.

Wilson, Kai Ashante

Gorinsky, Liz

Cheney, Matthew

Narayan, Shweta

Fantasy

CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform

Discover the haunting stories of Crawford Award-winning author Christopher Barzak in his new collection Before and Afterlives. These are tales of relationships with unearthly domesticity and eeriness: a woman falls in love with a haunted house; a beached mermaid is substituted for a lost missing daughter; the imaginary friend of a murdered young mother stalks the streets of her small town; a teenage boy is afflicted with a disease that causes him to vanish; a father exploits his daughter's talent for calling ghosts to her; and a wife leaves her husband and children to fulfill her obligations to a world from which she escaped. Winner of the Shirley Jackson Award for Best Collection!

Before and Afterlives

Lethe Press

Monstrous Alterations

Genre Fiction

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Barzak, Christopher. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Barzak, Christopher

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Barzak, Christopher. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Wonders of the Invisible World

Wonders of the Invisible World

Wonders of the Invisible World

The Gone Away Place

The Gone Away Place

One For Sorrow: A Novel

The Love We Share Without Knowing: A Novel

Fantasy Magazine, December 2015 (Queers Destroy Fantasy! Special Issue)

Before and Afterlives

Monstrous Alterations