Lessons in Magic and Disaster - Charlie Jane Anders

In the vein of Alice Hoffman and Charlie Jane Anders's own All the Birds in the Sky comes a novel full of love, disaster, and magic.

A young witch teaches her mother how to do magic--with very unexpected results--in this relatable, resonant novel about family, identity, and the power of love.

Jamie is the average New England academic in-training--she has a strong queer relationship, generational trauma, and an esoteric dissertation proposal. But she has one extraordinary secret: she's also a powerful witch.

Serena, Jamie's mother, has been hiding from the world in an old one-room schoolhouse for several years, grieving the death of her wife and the simultaneous explosion in her professional life. All she has left are memories.

Jamie’s busy digging into a three-hundred-year-old magical book, but she still finds time to teach Serena to cast spells and help her come out of her shell. But Jamie doesn't know the whole story of what happened to her mom years ago, and those secrets are leading Serena down a destructive path.

Now it's up to this grad student and literature nerd to understand the secrets behind this mysterious novel from 1749, unearth a long-buried scandal hinted therein, and learn the true nature of magic, before her mother ruins both of their lives.

“Charlie Jane Anders writes the kind of stories that break your heart and expand your mind simultaneously. Charlie Jane is a true gem in the literary world. I am a proud fan.” —Janelle Monáe

“Charlie Jane Anders has a near witch-like ability to orchestrate unexpected threads and thoughts into moving together as one enchanted whole. Lessons in Magic and Disaster is a marvel.” —Torrey Peters, award-winning author of Detransition, Baby

“Lessons in Magic and Disaster will conjure a wickedly brilliant spell on its readers in this tale about witchcraft, queer wisdom, and the pain and powers of womanhood at any age, written by one of our most wildly imaginative writers, Charlie Jane Anders.” —Amber Tamblyn, author of Listening in the Dark: Women reclaiming the Power of Intuition

“A novel that shimmers with fervent imagination and astute observation, Lessons in Magic and Disaster expertly journeys the uncanny valley between the seduction of witchcraft and the magic of everyday life.” —Meredith Talusan, author of Fairest

“Lessons in Magic and Disaster is a hymn to queer love, joy, and persistence. The song of resistance and mutual care echoes through this novel just as our trauma and the community we build to survive it echoes through the generations, reminding us: we have always been here; we will always take care of each other. A book for our times—and for all the times before this.” —-Nicola Griffith, author of Spear

"A breathtaking work of magic, grief, and love. The vulnerable depiction of relationships and challenges within queer and trans communities is heart-wrenching but still reflects hope and optimism throughout." --Library Journal, starred review

"Lessons in Magic and Disaster features…the magic…of human connection, and readers will be richer for the experience." –Shelf Awareness

Praise for Charlie Jane Anders

“Charlie Jane Anders always goes a step further.” —Jonathan Lethem, bestselling and award-winning author of Motherless Brooklyn

“Funny, inspiring, and warm…a book for anyone interested in using art to imagine—and build—better futures.” —Bookriot, on Never Say You Can’t Survive

“A wildly inventive, inventively radical, radically subtle rush of a novel.” —Audrey Niffenegger, author of The Time Traveler’s Wife, on The City in the Middle of the Night

"An intimate portrait of people as much as it is a piece of culturally aware social scifi — a look at our moment in history through a distorting lens of aliens and spaceships." —NPR on The City in the Middle of the Night

“This generation’s Le Guin.” —Andrew Sean Greer, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Less, on The City in in Middle of the Night