The Book Store Sisters by Alice Hoffman - A Short Story -36 Pages- 2022

 “Are you my sister or aren’t you?” Sophie’s face was pale; her black hair was knotted. She looked wild-eyed, and ready to snap. “Of course I am.” Was she being asked to forget her apartment, her job, her own life? “I can stay with you until you get over Matt.” It was the absolute worst thing to say. Isabel knew that it was as soon as she blurted it out, but words that have been said cannot be unspoken, and Sophie was hurt beyond measure. “Is that what you think happens when you lose someone you love? You get over them? You forget them and go on as if they never existed?" From "The Bookstore Sisters" by Alice Hoffman

This beautifully wrought story is my first venture into the vast oeuvre of Alice Hoffman.

Anyone who has experienced the loss the closest person in the world to them will relate to this story. Anyone who has ever thought to escape from a world they hated in reading will see themselves in one of the two sisters. Those who have never really coped with their memories of the inadequacy of their parents will see a truth here.

The story can be read in under an hour (it is included in The Kindle Unlimited Program). It is about the reunion of two long estranged, one stayed on a remote Maine in the family bookstore while the other moved to NYC.

I have now added several of Alice Hoffman's 30 novels to my Amazon Wish List 

Please share your suggestions for my next reading of Hoffman.

Alice Hoffman is the New York Times bestselling author of more than thirty works of fiction, including Practical Magic, The Dovekeepers, Magic Lessons, and most recently, The Book of Magic. Her works have been translated into more than twenty languages, 

Nominated for multiple awards, and adapted for the screen. She lives in Boston. Visit her website at www.alicehoffman.com.

Mel Ulm