Lessons in Magic and Disaster

By: Charlie Jane Anders

Narrated by: Lisa Flanagan, Marisa Calin, Sena Bryer

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 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.

©2025 Charlie Jane Anders (P)2025 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

“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