The Land of Laughs by Jonathon Carroll

Synopsis
For schoolteacher Thomas Abbey there was no writer to equal Marshall France, a legendary author of children's books who hid himself away in the small town of Galen and died of a heart attack at the age of forty-four. Tom and his girlfriend Saxony, wanting to write France's biography, arrive in Galen, where they discover the writer's fiercely protective daughter Anna is waiting for them. Before long, they realise that this idyllic little town and its inhabitants - both human and animal - are not quite what they seem: France's magic has spread beyond the printed page ...

Magical Realism is one of my favourite genres. Basically it's where something magical and other wordly happens in a very ordinary setting, as opposed to Fantasy which is usually about some made up planet in a galaxy far far away where dragons still roam and Lord someone or other is trying to defeat the evil wizard whatchamacallit.

The Land of Laughs in written so smoothly, so flowingly, that ones eyes just glide along the page and eat up chapter after chapter. For most of the book you have no idea in the direction the story it's going in (I never read the synopsis on the backs of books, I like to be surprised) but once Thomas hears a bulldog talking in his sleep (yes, really talking) you know that things in the town of Galen are not what they seem.

Fortunately for me Carroll has written lots of books because I got so much enjoyment from this one want to read all his others.