Tyll by Daniel Kehlmann: amazing magical realism/historical fiction mashup was the first. Kehlmann takes the German folkloric trickster figure of Tyll Eulenspiegel through the phantasmagoria of the Thirty Years’ War in the early 17th century. It is an incredible novel - and I also highly recommend Kehlmann’s earlier work, “Measuring the World.”
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke: A man survives in a labyrinth made of variations of classical architecture and ocean tides. Is he a scientist exploring a new world? A prisoner of his own mind? Of someone else’s? Is this a novel, or a fairy tale, or an allegory of our planet? Imagine Plato mixed with Jorge Luis Borges, with some Daniel Defoe sprinkled in for good measure. Also Clarke’s first novel, “Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell” is one of my absolute favorites.