Ten Favorite Works of Metaphysical Fiction
(Metaphysical fiction—fiction, that is, which seeks to establish, examine, or suggest a comprehensive, nonobvious vision of reality—occupies a slimmer literary niche than psychological or sociological fiction. What exists? What lies underneath it? And why is there something rather than nothing? These are the questions it poses, and if it fails to answer them, well, so do religion, philosophy, and every other endeavor of human thought—and anyway the aim of metaphysical fiction isn’t to solve the puzzles of being but to make you feel the significance of them. Here are ten examples, organized alphabetically by author.)
The Other City by Michal Ajvaz
Chronopolis and Other Stories by J.G. Ballard
The Other Side of the Mountain by Michel Bernanos
Labyrinths: Selected Stories and Other Writings by Jorge Luis Borges
Exhalation: Stories by Ted Chiang
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
The Thin Place by Kathryn Davis
The Complete Stories by Franz Kafka
The Spokes by Miranda Mellis
The Rim of Morning: Two Tales of Cosmic Horror by William Sloane
— November 23, 2020