Alice Hoffman

"Part American Graffiti, part early Updike, Seventh Heaven simultaneously chronicles the coming of age of a group of teenagers in a Long Island town, and the gradual dissolution of their parents' repressed, middle-class world...A parable about changing times and changing values"(The New York Times) from the bestselling author of The Rules of Magic.Nora Silk doesn't really fit in on Hemlock Street, where every house looks the same. She's divorced. She wears a charm bracelet and high heels and red toreador pants. And the way she raises her kids is a scandal. But as time passes, the neighbors start having second thoughts about Nora. The women's apprehension evolves into admiration. The men's lust evolves into awe. The children are drawn to her in ways they can't explain. And everyone on this little street in 1959 Long Island seems to sense the possibilities and perils of a different kind of future when they look at Nora Silk. An extraordinary novel, Seventh Heaven takes us back to a time when the exotic both terrified and intrigued us, and despite our most desperate attempts, our passions and secrets remained as stubbornly alive as the weeds in our well-trimmed lawns.

A beautiful story of true friendship and the magic all around in everyday life. Alice Hoffman is the author of twelve acclaimed and bestselling novels, published in more than twenty languages, amongst them 'Practical Magic', adapted into a major motion picture with Sandra Bullock.

Alice Hoffman, the bestselling author of The Rules of Magic, asks how we can find the courage to face the unthinkable in this compelling New York Times Notable Book. When Ethan Ford fails to show up for work on a brilliant summer morning, none of his neighbors would guess that for more than thirteen years, he has been running from his past. His true nature has been locked away, as hidden as his real identity. But sometimes locks spring open, and the devastating truths of Ethan Ford's history shatter the small-town peace of Monroe, affecting family and friends alike.Now, the police are at the door. Ethan Ford's life as an irreproachable family man and heroic volunteer fireman has come to an end--and Jorie Ford's life is coming apart. Some of the residents of Monroe are rallying behind Ethan. But others, including his wife and son, and wondering what remains true when so much is shown to be false--and how capable we really are of change.

The New York Times bestselling author of The Rules of Magic presents a "stunning and hypnotic" novel that "interweaves past and present with piercing images and unfailing energy"(Publishers Weekly). On a secluded waterfront estate on the North Shore of Long Island, a matriarch named Esther rules over her clan. But in spite of her sharp tongue and manipulative ways, she cannot quite keep control over her charges. Her son, Philip, routinely tries to drown himself each summer; her granddaughter sneaks cigarettes and dreams of escape. Esther has hired Cohen, a Russian landscaper, to watch over the family as well as the grounds. But Cohen has been watching Esther as well. And his love for her is growing wild enough to uproot them all...

Ethan and Jorie, the perfect couple, have been married for 13 years, and are still very much in love. But 13 years ago, Ethan committed a brutal rape and murder. A young girl's phone call exposes him, and nothing will ever be the same for them again.

The Night of the Wolf. On the Avenue, in the bleak area where New York City blends into suburbia, the Orphans - their fast Fords and Chevys coated by ice and leather and white dust - prepare to engage in deadly, intricately structured games of combat.

Verity, Florida, is a town remarkable only for its unbearable heat, strange inhabitants and the high number of women divorcees who live there. Lucy and Bethany Lee are two of them. Lucy's bad-penny son Keith witnesses Bethany Lee's murder but the murderer witnesses him.

Vonny lives on the island of Martha's Vineyard with husband Andre and son Simon. Their elderly neighbour, Elizabeth, has an accident and her granddaughter, Jodie comes to nurse her. So the players are assembled for a magical story of love and loneliness, of terror and human frailty.

A modern chronicle of a marriage and a bittersweet exploration of an extraordinary passion from the New York Times bestselling author of The Rules of Magic. Beginning on the night of the Grand Illumination, a festival of lanterns held each summer on Martha's Vineyard, Illumination Night follows the lives of a young blond giant who is as beautiful as he is frightening; an old woman at the end of her life whose last mission is to save her granddaughter's soul; a family torn apart by a wife's fears and a husband's unrealized desires--and the high school girl who comes to Martha's Vineyard against her will, who steals husbands and cars, and who will bring everyone together in a web of yearning, sin, and ultimate redemption. Both riveting and reflective, this is a story of "parenthood and friendship, self-protection and generosity, dream and disillusionment" (Newsday) that brings to light the talent that has made Alice Hoffman an acclaimed bestselling author.

For more than a century, the small town of Haddan, Massachusetts, has been divided, as if by a line drawn down the centre of Main Street, separating those born and bred in the 'village' from those who attend the prestigious Haddan School.

A story about a small town's surface appearance and the truths submerged below from the New York Times bestselling author of The Rules of Magic. People tend to stay in their place in the town of Haddan. The students at the prestigious prep school don't mix with locals; even within the school, hierarchy rules as freshman and faculty members find out where they fit in and what is expected from them. But there are minor collisions happening everywhere: An awkward boy, the son of a teacher, is flirting with a pretty classmate, the daughter of a convenience-store cashier. A photographer in plastic flip-flops and an overflowing backpack is about to marry a staid, ambitious historian. And when a body is found in the river behind the school, a local policeman named Abey Grey will walk into this enclosed world and upset it entirely...

The New York Times bestselling author of The Rules of Magic is at her haunting, thought-provoking best with these interconnected stories about a Long Island family. Alice Hoffman casts her spell over a neighborhood filled with dreamers and dreams as she evokes the world of the Samuelsons, a family torn apart by tragedy and bound together by devotion. As Gretel grows up, she is witness to the breakup of her parents' marriage, the ups and downs of her cousin Margot's search for love, the deterioration of a brother who passes up Harvard for a job at the Food Star, and emotional explosions that shatter the suburban quiet...

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Rules of Magic comes an "intimate, lovely novel"(People) about two mothers whose lives are on the brink of life-altering change. 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...

The acclaimed author of The Rules of Magic presents a "sexually charged...almost hypnotic"(Publishers Weekly) novel about men, women, romance, and real life. When Teresa was a little girl, she went to sleep with dreams in her head--dreams of dark-eyed, fearless heroes on white horses who would sweep her away. Then men her mother told her about were a special breed, and someday, Teresa vowed, she would fins one of her own. But now, as the adult Teresa negotiates life and love, she begins to understand that fairy tales don't always come true--and that passion isn't always the stuff of dreams...

The bestselling author of Practical Magic offers "an affecting love story, laced with humor" (Booklist) that tells the tale of a man and a woman, an activist and a therapist, so consumed with helping others that they are in danger of failing in their duty to themselves. This is an unforgettable tale about the true meaning of commitment, from "one of our quirkiest and most interesting novelists." (Jane Smiley, USA Today)

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Rules of Magic comes a "memorable...striking"(Village Voice) novel that vividly portrays an American family shattered by tragedy. Ivan and Polly Farrell have two bright and talented children. Eight-year-old Charlie has his father's scientific mind. Amanda, eleven, possesses the unusual strength and determination that has made her a promising gymnast. But her strength runs out as she becomes ill--and when she is diagnosed with AIDS, her family must draw on their own strengths as they come face-to-face with their deepest fears. "Brilliant...explosive...heart-rending."--Chicago Tribune "Compelling power...tenderness and perceptiveness."--The New York Times

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.

A seductive and mesmerizing story of obsessive love from the New York Times bestselling author of The Rules of Magic. After nineteen years in California, March Murray returns to the small Massachusetts town where she grew up. For all this time, March has been avoiding her own troubled history, but when she encounters Hollis--the boy she loved so desperately, the man who has never forgotten her--the past collides with the present as their reckless love is reignited. This dark romantic tale asks whether it is possible to survive a love that consumes you completely. The answers March Murray discovers are both heartbreaking and wise, as complex as they are devastating--for in heaven and in our dreams, love is simple and glorious. But it is something altogether different here on earth...

A suburban woman discovers her own wild spirit in this "suspenseful...dark, romantic meditation on what it means to be human"(The New Yorker) from the bestselling author of The Rules of Magic. Robin Moore, coping with a divorce and a troubled teen-aged son, impulsively rescues a strange man from a psychiatric ward--a beautiful, uncivilized innocent who has been raised in the wilderness and possesses no more sophistication than a child. But when she brings him home to her perfectly ordered neighborhood, the events that follow cause Robin to question her wisdom and doubt her own heart--and, ultimately, to change all of her ideas about love and humanity. "Her richest and wisest, as well as her boldest, novel to date."--The New York Times Book Review

A "captivating...truly original novel" (Cosmopolitan) from the New York Times bestselling author of The Rules of Magic. "Ms. Hoffman writes quite wonderfully about the magic in our lives and in the battered, indifferent world."--The New York Times Book ReviewWhen Keith Rosen runs away from his Florida home--inexplicably taking along a motherless baby--his mother is perplexed, terrified, and ultimately takes off on her own journey to find him. The story of a divorced woman, her disillusioned teenage son, and the events that change their lives in ways both simple and extraordinary, Turtle Moon follows their path, in a suspenseful, beautifully written story that confirms once again the exquisite talent of Alice Hoffman.