12 Best Surrealist Fiction Books to Bend Reality

There is a particular kind of reading mood when a tidy detective plot simply will not do. You want the carpet to start talking, the moon to become suspicious, and one perfectly normal decision to send reality wobbling off its axis. The best surrealist fiction does not merely get weird for the aesthetic. It makes the weirdness feel emotionally precise.

Surrealist fiction turns dreams, dread, desire and power into plot machinery. It can be hilarious, horrifying, tender, political, or all four before lunch.