Lessons in Magic and Disaster

"Listeners will be captivated as each narrator provides glimpses of Jamie's present and Serena's past, interspersed with snippets from the book of magic that Jamie is studying." - AudioFile

In the vein of Alice Hoffman and Charlie Jane Anders's own All the Birds in the Sky comes a multicast audiobook 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 basically your average New England academic in-training--she has a strong queer relationship, an esoteric dissertation proposal, and inherited generational trauma. 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.

A Macmillan Audio production from Tor Books

1146167702
Lessons in Magic and Disaster

"Listeners will be captivated as each narrator provides glimpses of Jamie's present and Serena's past, interspersed with snippets from the book of magic that Jamie is studying." - AudioFile

In the vein of Alice Hoffman and Charlie Jane Anders's own All the Birds in the Sky comes a multicast audiobook 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 basically your average New England academic in-training--she has a strong queer relationship, an esoteric dissertation proposal, and inherited generational trauma. 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.

A Macmillan Audio production from Tor Books

26.99 In Stock
Lessons in Magic and Disaster

Lessons in Magic and Disaster

by Charlie Jane Anders

Narrated by Lisa Flanagan, Marisa Calin, Sena Bryer

Unabridged — 11 hours, 35 minutes

Lessons in Magic and Disaster

Lessons in Magic and Disaster

by Charlie Jane Anders

Narrated by Lisa Flanagan, Marisa Calin, Sena Bryer

Unabridged — 11 hours, 35 minutes

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Overview

"Listeners will be captivated as each narrator provides glimpses of Jamie's present and Serena's past, interspersed with snippets from the book of magic that Jamie is studying." - AudioFile

In the vein of Alice Hoffman and Charlie Jane Anders's own All the Birds in the Sky comes a multicast audiobook 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 basically your average New England academic in-training--she has a strong queer relationship, an esoteric dissertation proposal, and inherited generational trauma. 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.

A Macmillan Audio production from Tor Books


Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

“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

Kirkus Reviews

★ 2025-05-03
Can magic solve all your problems? Unlikely, says this thoughtful, impactful work of fantasy.

Jamie, a trans graduate student, needs to find that piece of evidence that will give direction to her Ph.D. dissertation about 18th-century female authors, even as her university threatens to pull her funding and she faces misogyny and transphobia every day in the classes she teaches. She’s also trying to reconnect with her mother, Serena, who is suffering from a crippling depression stemming from the long-ago death of her wife, Mae, and the ruin of her career as a social justice activist by the leader of a right-wing smear group. So Jamie shares something with Serena that she hasn’t even shared with her nonbinary spouse, Ro: Jamie can do magic. She performs rituals that she hopes will make her small desires real in the world. Serena takes to this practice, but almost immediately seeks to enact larger, angrier spells, with effects that neither she nor Jamie can anticipate or control, profoundly disrupting both of their lives. This compact novel is about many things: a literary treasure hunt that strongly recalls A.S. Byatt’sPossession; the struggle to negotiate obligations to parents, spouses, and oneself; moving forward from grief; and a self-taught witch’s fraught journey toward understanding her own magic. But underlying everything is this profound question: How do minority groups (in this case, specifically, those in the LGBTQ+ community) fight effectively and ethically against the tolerance of intolerance? Wouldn’t it be wonderful to magically smite the powerful figures who discriminate, disenfranchise, and endanger the vulnerable through indifference or cruelty? Unfortunately, it’s never that easy, not in real life and not in fiction.

Much to ponder, much to cry over and rage against, much to appreciate.

Product Details

BN ID: 2940192857458
Publisher: Macmillan Audio
Publication date: 08/19/2025
Edition description: Unabridged
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