Alice Hoffman – författare

Discover the beloved novel that inspired the classic film – a magical, moving story of sisterhood, love and the ties that bind us.As children, Gillian and Sally Owens are marked as different, growing up on the margins of a small New England town where whispers of magic cling to their family name. Each longs to escape: one into marriage, the other as far from home as she can travel.Years later, when tragedy draws them back together, the sisters must confront not only the past they tried to leave behind, but the enduring connection between them – and the power, both dangerous and transformative, that has always set them apart.Richly atmospheric and quietly spellbinding, Practical Magic is a story of love and loss, forgiveness and belonging, and the extraordinary resilience of family. Alice Hoffman’s beloved novel continues to enchant readers with its seamless blend of the everyday and the otherworldly, capturing the fragile, powerful magic of being human.PRAISE FOR THE PRACTICAL MAGIC SERIES: 'A real pleasure' Kate Atkinson'Simply brilliant' Daily Mail‘A delicious fantasy of witchcraft and love in a world where gardens smell of lemon verbena and happy endings are possible’ Cosmopolitan‘What do you do when your long lost little sister shows up on your suburban front step… a dead man in the Oldsmobile that’s blocking your driveway? …You help her bury him in your backyard, underneath a wilting lilac bush that will suddenly spring back to life, bearing masses of heady flowers that remind everyone who passes by of desires they thought they’d long since stifled’ Vogue‘Dark comedy and a light touch carry the story along to a truly Gothic climax, complete with heaving skies and witchery on the lawn’ New York Times'A scrim of magic lies gently over this fictional world, in which lilacs bloom riotously in July, a lovesick boy's elbows sizzle on a diner countertop and a toad expectorates a silver ring...' Publishers Weekly

The extraordinary and enchanting novel tracing a centuries-old curse back to its beginning from the author of PRACTICAL MAGIC and THE DOVEKEEPERSFor centuries, the women of the Owens family have been cursed: any man who loves an Owens woman will die.It begins with a baby abandoned in a snowy English field in the 1600s. Gentle Hannah Owens takes the baby in, and as the child grows, Hannah teaches little Maria about the 'Unnamed Arts'. Maria has a gift for them – a gift that may well prove her undoing.When Maria is abandoned by the man she loves, she invokes the curse that will haunt her family for centuries. Because magic has rules, and they must be obeyed.PRAISE for ALICE HOFFMAN‘Beautiful, harrowing, a major contribution to twenty-first century literature’Toni Morrison‘I am still reeling from The Dovekeepers – from the history Alice Hoffman illuminates, from the language she uses to bring these women to life. This novel is a testament to the human spirit and to love rising from the ashes of war. But most of all, this novel is one that will never be forgotten by a reader.’Jodi Picoult‘In her remarkable new novel, Alice Hoffman holds a mirror to our ancient past as she explores the contemporary themes of sexual desire, women’s solidarity in the face of strife, and the magic that’s quietly present in our day-to-day living. Put The Dovekeepers at the pinnacle of Hoffman’s extraordinary body of work. I was blown away.’Wally Lamb‘Alice Hoffman takes seemingly ordinary lives and lets us see and feel extraordinary things.’Amy Tan‘Miss Hoffman heals wounds with the gentle touch of an angel’Joseph Heller'Oh, what a book this is! Hoffman’s exploration of the world of good and evil, and the constant contest between them, is unflinching; and the humanity she brings to us – it is a glorious experience.'Elizabeth Strout

Everyone needs a little magic in their lives... The Rules of Magic is the long-awaited prequel to Practical Magic, and a New York Times bestseller and Reese Witherspoon's Book Club pick!In this sparkling prequel we meet the Aunts from Practical Magic, sisters Frances and Jet and Vincent, their brother. From the beginning their mother Susanna knew they were unique: Franny with her skin as pale as milk and blood red hair, who could commune with birds; Jet as shy as she is beautiful, who knows what others are thinking, and Vincent so charismatic that he was built for trouble. Susanna needed to set some rules of magic: no walking in the moonlight, no red shoes, no wearing black, no cats, no crows, no candles and certainly, absolutely, no books about magic…  But the Owens siblings are desperate to uncover who they really are. Each heads down a life-altering course, filled with secrets and truths, devastation and joy, and magic and love. Despite the warning handed down through the family for centuries – Know that for our family, love is a curse – they will all strive to break the rules and find true love.***A perfect read for crisp autumn nights!***Praise for The Rules of Magic: ‘The combination of magic with the universal themes of romantic love and the bond between siblings allows the reader to have one foot in a magical world and another in the realities of family life. Much like the bewitching heroines in this book.’ – The Lady‘Utterly spellbinding’ - Heat‘Shows the author at their best… She neatly intertwines their lives with a backdrop that brims with periodic detail. Gnomic maxims add to a wise, seductive, fabular tone… Thrilling and transportive’ – Sunday Times  ‘Enchanting… Spellbinding and entertaining’ – Sunday Express‘Hoffman explores Aunt Frances and Aunt Bridget’s (known here as Jet) awakening to the craft in the 1960s. Franny and Jet, along with their brother Vincent, stay with their Aunt Isabelle. Each of their gifts grow, but can they use them to break the family curse? The Rules of Magic is a gentle tale, perfect as the nights draw in' – Press Association  ‘As efficient a slice of escapism as you would expect from Hoffman… Hoffman’s skill is to ground her light-as-a-feather tale in a very specific time and place: Manhattan in the Sixties. Wisely, she doesn’t rely on the momentous times to do too much work, but the heady atmospherics are expertly interwoven’ – Daily Mail  ‘A bewitching, hard to put down tale of the consequences of magic, love and family’ - Bookbag

‘Full of Hoffman’s bewitching and lucid prose and vivid characters, The Book of Magic is ultimately about the very human magic of family and love and actions that echo through generations… it casts a spell’  —Matt HaigTHE STUNNING, UNFORGETTABLE CONCLUSION TO THE BELOVED PRACTICAL MAGIC SERIESFor centuries, the Owens family has been cursed in matters of love. When beloved aunt Jet Owens hears the sound of the deathwatch beetle, she knows that it is a signal. She has finally discovered the secret to breaking the curse, but time is running out. She has only seven days to live.Unaware of the family’s witchcraft lineage and all it entails, one of the young sisters of the new Owens generation has fallen in love. As the curse strikes once again, her love’s fate hangs in the balance, spurring three generations of Owens to venture back to where it all began and use their gifts to break the spell that has marked all their lives.But doing so threatens to destroy everything the family has fought so hard to protect. How much will they give up for the greatest gift of all?'This page-turning Atlantic-crossing caper is, above all, a paean to family love... These fast fairytales for grown-ups are full of enchanting comfort – more escapist than curse' —Sunday Times'A satisfying tale springs from a slow beginning, packing in escapist fable, real-world savvy and incidents galore' —Mail on Sunday'Delightfully witchy... Alluring on its own, it's also a satisfying end to a timeless saga' —New York Times Book ReviewPRAISE for ALICE HOFFMAN‘Beautiful, harrowing, a major contribution to twenty-first century literature’Toni Morrison‘I am still reeling from The Dovekeepers – from the history Alice Hoffman illuminates, from the language she uses to bring these women to life. This novel is a testament to the human spirit and to love rising from the ashes of war. But most of all, this novel is one that will never be forgotten by a reader.’Jodi Picoult‘In her remarkable new novel, Alice Hoffman holds a mirror to our ancient past as she explores the contemporary themes of sexual desire, women’s solidarity in the face of strife, and the magic that’s quietly present in our day-to-day living. Put The Dovekeepers at the pinnacle of Hoffman’s extraordinary body of work. I was blown away.’Wally Lamb‘Alice Hoffman takes seemingly ordinary lives and lets us see and feel extraordinary things.’Amy Tan‘Miss Hoffman heals wounds with the gentle touch of an angel’Joseph Heller'Oh, what a book this is! Hoffman’s exploration of the world of good and evil, and the constant contest between them, is unflinching; and the humanity she brings to us – it is a glorious experience.'Elizabeth Strout

A haunting and emotionally satisfying novel from a much-loved and critically acclaimed author, which weaves fairy tale and gritty realism together to dazzling effect.‘The Story Sisters’ charts the lives of three sisters – Elv, Claire and Meg. Each has a fate she must meet alone: one on a country road, one in the streets of Paris, and one in the corridors of her own imagination. Inhabiting their world are a charismatic man who cannot tell the truth, a neighbor who is not who he appears to be, a clumsy boy in Paris who falls in love and stays there, a detective who finds his heart’s desire, and a demon who will not let go.What does a mother do when one of her children goes astray? How does she save one daughter without sacrificing the others? How deep can love go, and how far can it take you?At once a coming-of-age tale, a family saga, and a love story of erotic longing, ‘The Story Sisters’ sifts through the miraculous and the mundane as the girls become women and their choices haunt them, change them and, finally, redeem them.

A haunting and emotionally satisfying novel from a much-loved and critically acclaimed author, which weaves fairy tale and gritty realism together to dazzlingly effect.`The Story Sisters’ charts the lives of three sisters – Elv, Claire and Meg. Each has a fate she must meet alone: one on a country road, one in the streets of Paris, and one in the corridors of her own imagination. Inhabiting their world are a charismatic man who cannot tell the truth, a neighbor who is not who he appears to be, a clumsy boy in Paris who falls in love and stays there, a detective who finds his heart’s desire, and a demon who will not let go.What does a mother do when one of her children goes astray? How does she save one daughter without sacrificing the others? How deep can love go, and how far can it take you?At once a coming-of-age tale, a family saga, and a love story of erotic longing, `The Story Sisters’ sifts through the miraculous and the mundane as the girls become women and their choices haunt them, change them and, finally, redeem them.

Ethan and Jorie, a perfect, beautiful couple, have been married for 13 years, and are still very much in love. Ethan is a pillar of the community, but 13 years ago he committed a brutal rape and murder. A young girl's phone call exposes him, and nothing will ever be the same for any of them - as nothing could ever be the same for that other young girl who was raped all those years ago, or for her family. Blue Diary is a powerful, disturbing novel about the dark shadows in ordinary lives, about the ripples that carry on indefinitely from a violent act. And the blue diary of the title belonged to the dead girl...

When teenager Keith Rosen runs away from his Florida home - inexplicably taking along a motherless baby - his divorced mother is perplexed and terrified. she takes off on her own journey to find him. Turtle Moon follows their path in a suspenseful, beautifully written story that confirms once again the exquisite talent of Alice Hoffman.

From the great May storm in 1778 when John Hadley and his sons slip the British blockade off the coast of Massachusetts only to disappear at sea, the lives of the inhabitants of the wooden farmhouse on the cape, stranded amid fields of sweet peas and wild fruit vines and red pear trees, coil and weave around each other, right up to the present. Young Isaac Hadley is more interested in his pet blackbird and the star charts in The Practical Navigator than in helping to build the house; and Violet, a century later, with her stained face and her own ghostly bird, reads the same book, and finds that it's easy enough to trick a learned man, though harder to catch one...Larkin Howard is ready to sell his soul to buy the farm, but meets a woman who hears the whales cry on the beach; while in another century the young Farrell boy sees more than he should on a snowy night- and the pond out back is still dark and unforgiving beneath its deceptively golden lilies. By the 1950s, the farmhouse is part of a community of steady men and wayward boys, and women who make jam but still feel the ghostly breath of Cora Hadley, with her green fingers. As a second century draws to a close and summer visitors from the cities take over the countryside, the house can barely hold all its ghosts, but the tragedies are not over...With a sense of place that is uncanny, and vividly real characters whose lives don't run smooth and whose stories loop together across space and time, this is a remarkable, haunting and accomplished work from a favourite novelist - an irresistible fiction about a house for all seasons.

Alice Hoffman is at her electrifying best in this fairy tale for grown-ups. The story begins with a little girl who makes a wish one snowy night and ruins her life. She grows up with a splinter of ice in her heart until one day, standing by her kitchen window, she is struck by lightning. Instead of killing her, this cataclysmic event sparks off a new beginning. She seeks out Lazarus Jones, a fellow lightning survivor. He is her opposite, a burning man whose breath can boil water and whose touch scorches. As an obsessive love affair begins between them, both are forced to hide their most dangerous secrets - what turned one to ice and the other to fire. The Ice Queen is a haunting story of passion, loss, second chances and the secrets that come to define us, if we're not careful.

March returns to her childhood home with her teenage daughter, Gwen, to attend the funeral of the housekeeper who brought her up. Unexpectedly, though, the visit rekindles in March a passion for an earlier unrequited love. Overwhelmed by her emotions, she abandons her marriage and life commitments in pursuit of the affair. But her lover is a man of strange secrets with a violent streak, and she soon discovers him to be a Bluebeard with a sinister collection...Here on Earth is both a darkly compelling love story and a fantastically detailed portrait of small-town life, rife with gossip, tensions and murky pasts.An Oprah Winfrey Book Club Choice.

From the New York Times Bestselling Author of The Third AngelAlice Hoffman’s previous novel, The Third Angel, was hailed as "an unforgettable portrait of the depth of true love" (USA Today), "stunning" (Jodi Picoult), and "spellbinding" (Miami Herald). Her new novel, The Story Sisters, charts the lives of three sisters–Elv, Claire, and Meg. Each has a fate she must meet alone: one on a country road, one in the streets of Paris, and one in the corridors of her own imagination. Inhabiting their world are a charismatic man who cannot tell the truth, a neighbor who is not who he appears to be, a clumsy boy in Paris who falls in love and stays there, a detective who finds his heart’s desire, and a demon who will not let go.What does a mother do when one of her children goes astray? How does she save one daughter without sacrificing the others? How deep can love go, and how far can it take you? These are the questions this luminous novel asks. At once a coming-of-age tale, a family saga, and a love story of erotic longing, The Story Sisters sifts through the miraculous and the mundane as the girls become women and their choices haunt them, change them and, finally, redeem them. It confirms Alice Hoffman’s reputation as "a writer whose keen ear for the measure struck by the beat of the human heart is unparalleled" (The Chicago Tribune).From the Hardcover edition.

The Red Garden introduces us to the luminous and haunting world of Blackwell, Massachusetts, capturing the unexpected turns in its history and in our own lives.      In exquisite prose, Hoffman offers a transforming glimpse of small-town America, presenting us with some three hundred years of passion, dark secrets, loyalty, and redemption in a web of tales where characters'' lives are intertwined by fate and by their own actions.      From the town''s founder, a brave young woman from England who has no fear of blizzards or bears, to the young man who runs away to New York City with only his dog for company, the characters in The Red Garden are extraordinary and vivid: a young wounded Civil War soldier who is saved by a passionate neighbor, a woman who meets a fiercely human historical character, a poet who falls in love with a blind man, a mysterious traveler who comes to town in the year when summer never arrives.      At the center of everyone’s life is a mysterious garden where only red plants can grow, and where the truth can be found by those who dare to look.      Beautifully crafted, shimmering with magic, The Red Garden is as unforgettable as it is moving.

Bestselling author Alice Hoffman’s bewitching Nightbird is perfect for ages 10-13: love and friendship empower a lonely girl to embrace her uniqueness and discover her strengths.  Twig lives in Sidwell, where people whisper that fairy tales are real. After all, her town is rumored to hide a monster. And two hundred years ago, a witch placed a curse on Twig’s family that was meant to last forever. But this summer, everything will change when the red moon rises. It’s time to break the spell. What Other Authors Are Saying“I love the way Alice Hoffman creates the most ordinary people and then turns their lives magical. . . . [Nightbird] is like reentering a wonderful dream that you vaguely remember.” —Lois Lowry, two-time Newbery Medal–winning author of The Giver“Hoffman reminds us that there are secrets everywhere . . . Nightbird soars.”—The New York Times “Alice Hoffman has a gift for melding magic and realism in a way that makes nearly anything seem possible.”—Shelf Awareness, Starred “The mix of romance and magic is irresistible.”—Kirkus Reviews  

From the Hardcover edition.