Alice Hoffman works I have read
The Marriage of Opposites- 2015
"Everything My Mother Taught Me" - 2016
"The Book Store Sisters" -2022
The Foretelling - 2006
"Conjure" - 2014
Aquamarine- 2001
The Ice Queen - 2006
Property Of -1977
Magic Lessons- 2020
Skylight- 2007
"Everything in her life had already happened to her, the wondrous and terrible both. Her whole world was over; all the rest would only be marking time." From The Red Garden - since the passing of my wife this expresses how I often feel
With the exception of Property Of, the more of Alice Hoffman I read the greater my appreciation becomes.
I have begun to notice recurring items in Hoffman, Women with red hair, strong bonds between women and animals, young girls retreating from the world in books,and journeys into the wild. Love is dangerous. Bassett Hounds, men are often drunks.
From the author of Reese Witherspoon Book Club pick The Rules of Magic comes a transfixing glimpse into a small American town where a mysterious, magical garden holds the truth behind three hundred years of passion, dark secrets, loyalty, and redemption.
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. 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 and shimmering with magic, The Red Garden is as unforgettable as it is moving". From the publisher
The Red Garden is a truly wonderful book. It conveys the unending pain caused by deaths of those we, of being surrounded by those way below us in understanding, of being seen as someone "odd". I was enthralled by how succeeding chapter linked family connections.
Oh yes, Johnny Applebeed makes a lasting mark on the town.
My next of Hoffman's novels will be The Drowning Season.
Mel Ulm
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