10 Fascinating Novels About Fortune Telling

Madame Burova – Ruth Hogan

A good read among novels about fortune telling. Imelda Burova has spent a lifetime keeping other people’s secrets and her silence has come at a price. She has seen the lovers and the liars, the angels and the devils, the dreamers and the fools. Her cards had unmasked them all and her cards never lied. But Madame Burova is weary of other people’s lives, their ghosts from the past and other people’s secrets, she needs rest and a little piece of life for herself. Before that, however, she has to fulfill a promise made a long time ago. She holds two brown envelopes in her hand, and she has to deliver them.

In London, it is time for another woman to make a fresh start. Billie has lost her university job, her marriage, and her place in the world when she discovers something that leaves her very identity in question. Determined to find answers, she must follow a trail which might just lead right to Madame Burova’s door.

In a story spanning over fifty years, Ruth Hogan conjures a magical world of 1970s holiday camps and seaside entertainers, eccentrics, heroes and villains, the lost and the found. Young people, with their lives before them, make choices which echo down the years. And a wall of death rider is part of a love story which will last through time. A fun read among novels about fortune telling.

The Magus – John Fowles

The novel features a young Englishman named Nicholas who travels to a remote Greek island to teach at a private school. There, he meets a wealthy and mysterious man named Conchis who claims to be a master of illusions and fortune telling. Conchis leads Nicholas through a series of psychological games and tests, leaving him unsure of what is real and what is not. The book is a masterful exploration of human nature and the power of perception. A must-read among books about fortune telling.

The Fortune Teller – Gwendolyn Womack

A popular one among novels about fortune telling: Semele Cavnow appraises antiquities for an exclusive Manhattan auction house, specialising in deciphering ancient texts. And when she discovers a manuscript written in the time of Cleopatra, she knows it will be the find of her career. Its author tells the story of a priceless tarot deck, now lost to history, but as Semele delves further she realises the manuscript is more than it seems. Both a memoir and a prophecy, it appears to be the work of a powerful seer, describing devastating wars and natural disasters in detail thousands of years before they occurred.

The more she reads, the more the manuscript begins to affect Semele’s entire life. But what happened to the cards? As the mystery of her connection to it deepens, Semele can’t shake the feeling that she’s being followed. Only one person can help her make sense of it all: her client, Theo Brassard. Yet Theo is arrogant and elusive, concealing secrets of his own, and there’s more to Semele’s desire to speak with him than she would like to admit.

Can Semele even trust him? The auction date is swiftly approaching, and someone wants to interfere – someone who knows the cards exist, and that the Brassard manuscript is tied to her. Semele realises it’s up to her to stop them: the manuscript holds the key to a two-thousand-year-old secret, a secret someone will do anything to possess—an interesting one among novels about fortune telling.

The Leaf Reader – Emily Arsenault

For the fans of leaf fortune among novels about fortune telling. Marnie Wells has always been the weird kid. She knows she creeps people out. So no one even bats an eye when she finds an old book about reading tea leaves and starts telling fortunes. She finds it oddly soothing, but she knows none of it is real. But then basketball star Matt asks for a reading. He’s been getting emails from his best friend Andrea – who disappeared and is presumed dead, with Matt a one-time suspect. Marnie sees a kindred spirit in Matt and suddenly, the readings seem real. They’re telling her things about Matt. Things that could prove deadly. An interesting read among novels about fortune tellers.

Woman of Light – Kali Fajardo-Anstine

A historical fiction among novels about fortune telling. Luz “Little Light” Lopez, a tea leaf reader and laundress, is left to fend for herself after her older brother, Diego, a snake charmer and factory worker, is run out of town by a violent white mob. As Luz navigates 1930s Denver, she begins to have visions that transport her to her Indigenous homeland in the nearby Lost Territory. Luz recollects her ancestors’ origins, how her family flourished, and how they were threatened. She bears witness to the sinister forces that have devastated her people and their homelands for generations. In the end, it is up to Luz to save her family stories from disappearing into oblivion.

Written in Kali Fajardo-Anstine’s singular voice, the wildly entertaining and complex lives of the Lopez family fill the pages of this multigenerational western saga. Woman of Light is a transfixing novel about survival, family secrets, and love-filled with an unforgettable cast of characters, all of whom are just as special, memorable, and complicated as our beloved heroine, Luz—an interesting one among novels about fortune telling.

The Immortalists – Chloe Benjamin

It’s 1969, and holed up in a grimy tenement building in New York’s Lower East Side is a travelling psychic who claims to be able to tell anyone the date they will die. The four Gold children, too young for what they’re about to hear, sneak out to learn their fortunes.

Such prophecies could be dismissed as trickery and nonsense, yet the Golds bury theirs deep. Over the years that follow they attempt to ignore, embrace, cheat and defy the ‘knowledge’ given to them that day – but it will shape the course of their lives forever—a historical fantasy among novels about fortune telling.

Fortune’s Daughter – Alice Hoffman

Rae Perry is young, unmarried, and far from home as she awaits the birth of her first child accompanied by the angry, moody man she’s loved since high school. Lila Grey is a fortune-teller with no interest in the future, a mother who lost her daughter long ago on a cold, cold day. Now, as these two women meet, it is earthquake weather in California–when animals panic, friends and lovers quarrel, ice cubes dissolve in the palm of your hand. It is a time when things are in the air, and the unexpected happens.

For Rae and Lila, it will mean the sudden intertwining of their lives and fates–as each makes a bid to change her fortune forever… For the fans of Hoffman among novels about fortune telling.

The Reluctant Fortune Teller – Keziah Frost

Looking for a bit of fun? You’ll love this among novels about fortune telling. Norbert Zelenka has always lived life on the sidelines. It’s why at seventy-three years old he’s broke and alone except for the company of a Chihuahua. But when “Carlotta’s Club”–three strong-willed seniors with plenty of time on their hands–decide to make Norbert their latest project, he reluctantly agrees to their scheme: establishing himself as the town’s fortune-teller. Soon his life begins changing in unexpected ways.

It turns out that years of observing other people make Norbert an excellent card reader. As Norbert’s lonesome world expands with new friendships and a newfound self-confidence, he finally finds himself in a place where he belongs. But disaster looms on the horizon. When a troubled young woman goes missing after a bad reading, Norbert must find a strength beyond the cards to bring her home safely.

A heartfelt story of coming-of-age late in life, The Reluctant Fortune-Teller is a poignant reminder that we’re never too old to learn new tricks—a heart-warming one among novels about fortune telling.

Vanessa Yu’s Magical Paris Tea Shop – Roselle Lim

Want to travel to Paris? You’ll love this one among novels about fortune telling. Vanessa Yu never wanted to see people’s fortunes–or misfortunes–in tea leaves.

Ever since she can remember, Vanessa has been able to see people’s fortunes at the bottom of their teacups. To avoid blurting out their fortunes, she converts to coffee, but somehow fortunes escape and find a way to complicate her life and the ones of those around her. To add to this plight, her romance life is so nonexistent that her parents enlist the services of a matchmaking expert from Shanghai.

After her matchmaking appointment, Vanessa sees death for the first time. She decides that she can’t truly live until she can find a way to get rid of her uncanny abilities. When her eccentric Aunt Evelyn shows up with a tempting offer to whisk her away, Vanessa says au revoir to California and bonjour to Paris. There, Vanessa learns more about herself and the root of her gifts and realizes one thing to be true: knowing one’s destiny isn’t a curse, but being unable to change it is. A heart-warming one among novels about fortune telling.

The Lace Reader – Brunonia Barry

Drawn by family. Driven by fear. Haunted by fate. Would knowing the future be a gift or a burden? Or even a curse…? A fun read among novels about fortune telling.

The Whitney women of Salem, Massachusetts are renowned for reading the future in the patterns of lace. But the future doesn’t always bring good news – as Towner Whitney knows all too well. When she was just fifteen her gift sent her whole world crashing to pieces. She predicted – and then witnessed – something so horrific that she vowed never to read lace again, and fled her home and family for good. Salem is a place of ghosts for Towner, and she swore she would never return.

Yet family is a powerful tie. So it is that fifteen years later, Towner finds herself back in Salem. Her beloved Great Aunt Eva has suddenly disappeared – and when you’ve lived a life like Eva’s, that could mean real trouble. But Salem is wreathed in sickly shadows and whispered half-memories. It’s fast becoming clear that the ghosts of Towner’s fractured past have not been brought fully into the light. And with them comes the threat of terrifying new disaster. An easy read among novels about fortune telling.