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The Probable Future

3.8 of 5 stars 3.80 · rating details · 6,481 ratings · 589 reviews

Alice Hoffman’s most magical novel to date—three generations of extraordinary women are driven to unite in crisis and discover the rewards of reconciliation and love.

Women of the Sparrow family have unusual gifts. Elinor can detect falsehood. Her daughter, Jenny, can see people’s dreams when they sleep. Granddaughter Stella has a mental window on the future—a future that

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Hardcover, 322 pages

Published June 24th 2003 by DoubleDay

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Aug 29, 2007 Meagan rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 5stars

Honestly, this book was one of the best depictions of mother-daughter relationships I've ever read. I felt for both mother and child in it, I could see both sides and where both were coming from - yet unlike other novels, I saw no clear way to fix it, because there was no clear way to fix things. It was kind of heartbreaking to read, because I saw my own relationship with my mom in Hoffman's words.

The only downside to the plot was Stella's relationship with the football player. It seemed awkward...more

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Mar 25, 2009 LeAnn rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Hoffman's description of her made-up New England town is simultaneously realistic and lushly magical. She sets a stage well, with assertions about Massachusetts in March that lead the reader to accept that females born into a certain family have gifts no living person can have: the ability to see how someone will die, to experience another person's dreams, to identify a liar on sight.

Hoffman ties everything up very neatly, so that all the females have a love interest, bad guys lose or grow up, h...more

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Feb 19, 2008 Izetta Autumn rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: magical-realism-fantasy

Some of the writing in Alice Hoffman's novel is truly inspired. Her characters do indeed come to life, even if at times they seem to be tried and true caricatures of New England. Hoffman has been quoted as saying that "books may be the only real magic," and certainly it's clear from her prose that she wants the reader to feel magical.

The Probably Future follows the story of three Sparrow womyn: Elinor, Jenny, and Stella. The three are descended from a long line of womyn known for their unusual...more

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Jul 23, 2011 Tina rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This was a fantastic book! It was beautifully written and nicely plotted. Basically, at the age of 13, each girl in the family develops some type of supernatural ability. This novel explored the intricate relationships of mothers/daughters as well as including some "redemption" for a much-misunderstood relative from years ago. This is the first novel of Hoffmans's I have read, and it will be the first of many if they are all this good!

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Jan 22, 2009 bookczuk rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: bookcrossing, favorite-author

I though I'd read this when it came out, and was right- I had- but went ahead and reread it anyway. Hoffman has a thing about the relationships of women in a family lineage- Practical Magic, Blackbird House both come to mind. But she has such a lyrical way of breathing life into her characters, that the journey is magical. Her books start off and you can feel the breeze, smell the scents in the wind, feel the weight of the very air. She weaves the environment into every story, whether it's a New...more

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Jan 08, 2013 Lauren Chater rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: magic-realism

This is a beautifully written book which, I realise, probably won’t appeal to everybody. You only have to read the various reviews on this site to understand how subjective Hoffman’s writing style is! She doesn’t conform to what some might call ‘high literature prose’, but she has a distinctive authorial voice which draws you in. It’s almost like the storyteller is sitting in front of you, reading aloud and weaving the story together while you listen.

I personally loved the fairy tale and folklor...more This is a beautifully written book which, I realise, probably won’t appeal to everybody. You only have to read the various reviews on this site to understand how subjective Hoffman’s writing style is! She doesn’t conform to what some might call ‘high literature prose’, but she has a distinctive authorial voice which draws you in. It’s almost like the storyteller is sitting in front of you, reading aloud and weaving the story together while you listen.

I personally loved the fairy tale and folklore elements of this book (like leaving a wedding cake out to tempt bees into your garden) and the way the plot is kind of meandering, a bit like following a path through the woods. You might not always end up where you thought you were going, but Hoffman is a skilled enough writer to ensure that the experience is rewarding and her descriptions of place and character echo in your mind long after the book is over. I am currently re-reading it, because I enjoyed it so much the first time I read it last year.

While I felt the female characters in The Probable Future were well drawn, my favourite character, the one who spoke to me the most and who I empathised with was the doctor. Hoffman writes with such clarity about life and death, and nobody is more aware of the nuances of living than a doctor. Incidentally, my mother is a midwife and I feel that Hoffman really captured the essence of what it is to be a healer; charged with saving lives, but also bearing the responsibility of farewelling a soul and being there to comfort the people left behind.
There were little moments in this book where I was moved to tears, because some of the events and emotions that you experience with the characters rang true to life. There were of course the more literal themes of mother/daughter relationships, as discussed in the synopsis, finding love again after making mistakes and whether one can ever really escape one’s destiny. I feel that these themes paled in comparison, though, to the lasting impression of the final chapter, which was about appreciating the time you have with the people you love and having faith in something bigger than what you can see with your own eyes.

Every reader comes to a book with different experiences that shape the way they read the text. I would encourage you to try this book if you like Hoffman’s other work (I have only read Practical Magic and Blackbird House), or if you like magic realism novels. While Hoffman does touch on similar themes she has explored in other books, there is still something magic to uncover in The Probable Future and I hope you find it there, as I did. You will not be disappointed.
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Dec 15, 2011 Patricia rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The women of the Sparrow family have lived in New England for generations. Each is born in the month of March, and at the age of thirteen, each develops an unusual gift. Elinor can literally smell a lie. Her daughter, Jenny, can see people’s dreams as they’re dreaming them. Granddaughter Stella, newly a teen, has just developed the ability to see how other people will die. Ironically, it is their gifts that have kept Elinor and Jenny apart for the last twenty-five years. But as Stella struggles...more

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Jun 08, 2011 Carolina Dean rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The Probable Future is the story of the Sparrow women, each of whom discovers their own unique ability on their 13th birthday. Though many Sparrow women are mentioned, the story mainly concerns the three latest generations. Elinor, the current matriarch, can discern liars; Jenny, the mother, dreams other people’s dreams; and Stella, the daughter can see the manner in which people will die. Along the way we learn a little about their infamous ancestor, Rebecca Sparrow, who was blessed (or cursed)...more The Probable Future is the story of the Sparrow women, each of whom discovers their own unique ability on their 13th birthday. Though many Sparrow women are mentioned, the story mainly concerns the three latest generations. Elinor, the current matriarch, can discern liars; Jenny, the mother, dreams other people’s dreams; and Stella, the daughter can see the manner in which people will die. Along the way we learn a little about their infamous ancestor, Rebecca Sparrow, who was blessed (or cursed) with the inability to feel pain which lead to her demise at the hands of a suspicious mob.

Their unique gifts and long history in the town of Unity make the Sparrow women both a source of pride as well as the subject of rumor and assumptions. Desperate to escape the burden of her heritage and an un-loving mother, Jenny runs away with Will Avery an attractive young man who could charm anyone, with the exception of Elinor Sparrow who knew him to be a liar and a cheat the second she laid eyes upon him.

Jenny sacrifices her education in order to ensure that Will receives his, only to have Will squander his opportunity at Harvard University, which pretty much sets up a cycle which the couple repeats in various forms through the years. Eventually, Jenny and Will have a daughter. It is a difficult birth, but both the child and the mother survive. Jenny swears that her daughter will never learn of her heritage, and strives to be the kind of mother that she herself never had. Jenny’s efforts serve only to drive her daughter further away. Their relationship is further strained by the fact that Jenny has left Will, and he has moved out, since Stella practically worships her father

Stella’s 13th birthday coincides with the onset of menstruation, and she begins to have graphic visions indicating a person’s manner of death. She sees a large fish trapped in her math teacher’s throat, a pea sized sphere in the brain of a cab driver, etc… Not understanding what she is seeing, Stella confides in the only person she feels that she can trust, her father.

When Stella predicts the murder of a woman in the restaurant he takes her to celebrate her birthday Stella urges Will to warn her of impending death. When the woman fails to take the vision seriously, Stella forces her father to do more in order to prevent the death. Will goes to the police to make a report, but the police don’t take him seriously either. When the murder occurs, Will becomes the prime suspect and the media descend on him and his family to get the story.

Jenny is forced to send her daughter to live with her grandmother in her ancestral home. When Jenny loses her job due to the scandal, she returns to her home as well to make a new start. With three generations of Sparrow women under one roof and the threat of the real murderer lurking in the darkness the women are forced to deal with their issues, lost loves, and the powers that they cannot deny.

I really enjoyed The Probable Future, I felt that it could very well be the story of distant cousins of the Owens women in Hoffman’s Practical Magic as the two novels bear a few striking similarities. Both stories concern the most recent in a long line of magical women, a very unique house, and the struggle to find and accept love.

Although the word witch appears only once in the whole book, there are hints that the women are witches, or have some knowledge of witchcraft. Rebecca Sparrow wanders out of the woods with only a bell, a compass, and wearing a silver star around her neck. Elinor Sparrow is accused of cursing people by sticking an onion with black headed pins, or driving chicken feathers through a knotted length of thread.

While the murder of a woman the author didn’t expend the effort to name moves the story along, the central plot of this book is the dynamic of the mother/daughter relationship. The Probable Future teaches us that the secret to a successful relationship is like one of the recipes in Rebecca Sparrow’s ancient cookbook. All the ingredients are there, we just have to add them in the right proportion. It takes a little sour to balance the sweet, a little heat can bring out flavor, but too much can burn the stew and leave a bitter taste in your mouth, and a dish left out in the cold overnight will often spoil……(less)

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May 07, 2011 Nardia rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is a lovely story. I was hooked from the start, reading it all in two sittings, and when the book finally let me go it was with a sigh of relief and satisfaction. Alice Hoffman's grasp on her words is just magical; tightly controlled, so that each sentence seems to hold layers of meaning, but also flowing easily from the tongue. There's definitely a certain poetry in the way she weaves the environments where the story takes place, and she doesn't write as though her readers are stupid. Many...more

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Apr 10, 2011 Angela rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: bookcrossed-or-otherwise-set-free

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Feb 20, 2011 Lis Carey rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: f-sf, lit-fic

The Sparrows are a family of women who've lived in a small Massachusetts town since colonial times, their lives enlivened by a magical gift (different for each of them) that first manifests itself on their thirteenth birthdays. As is often the case with magic, the term "gift" is applied here fairly loosely. In the present day, Elinor always knows a lie, her daughter Jenny experiences other people's dreams, and granddaughter Stella, just turned thirteen, has developed the ability to see how peopl...more

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Dec 07, 2010 Badly Drawn Girl rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I have some mixed feelings about this book which usually happens when I read a book that allows me to suspend belief but which doesn't have enough substance to sustain my enjoyment beyond the act of reading. To put it simply, while reading it I was sucked into the fairy tale like quality. But after I was finished (and had come back down to earth) the flaws showed up quite clearly. I felt that people changed too much, too quickly... and that in hindsight the story had some huge holes in the plot....more

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May 03, 2010 Shannon rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The Probable Future was a great beach read: quickly compelling, easy to read but thought provoking. It follows three generations of Sparrow women: Stella, Jenny and Elinor. For generations, the women of this family have received a gift on their thirteenth birthday (such as the ability to go without sleep or the ability to literally smell a lie). Stella's thirteenth is fast approaching and brings her a gift that indirectly results in her father being arrested on charges of murder.

As my reviews of...more

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Oct 02, 2009 Lynda rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy

This was a beautifully written book about the Sparrow’s family history spanning 13 generations. Rebecca Sparrow walked out of the woods one day when she was seven or eight and no one knew where she originated. Named Rebecca by the washerwoman who took her in and Sparrow by the local boys who saw Sparrows flocking to her almost supernaturally, she lived a short life affecting the small town of Unity, Massachusettes for generations to come.

Each Sparrow woman kept her surname and bore only one chil...more

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Sep 04, 2009 Gayle rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Alice Hoffman has made a name for herself with such novels as Practical Magic, but I have not read her before this. The Probable Future touches on the lives of the Sparrow women, residents of Unity for generations, and definitely different. Each receives a gift on her thirteenth birthday: Elinor is able to smell a lie, her daughter Jenny dreams other people's dreams, and Jenny's daughter Stella can look at a person and see how they will die. Stella's inexperience in dealing with her gift results...more

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Jun 27, 2012 Mo Hammer! rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

While I normally adore reading stuff by Alice Hoffman, I am disappointed in the muddiness of this book. There were times when I pulled an RA and skimmed through entire pages looking for something other than words on a page. I found myself looking for the story: where did it go? Is is under the bed? Is is at the end of the page? What about behind my ear? Oh no--it was scattered within the pages, to be sure, but I had to trim a lot of fat to get to the meat.

I love Lady Hoffman's devotion to captur...more

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Apr 06, 2012 Jayne Charles rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This had an interesting set-up: a family in which the women inherit special abilities on their thirteenth birthdays. Stretching back generations the quirk threw up some interesting scenarios (one of them didn’t need sleep, one of them couldn’t feel pain etc etc). Some were a bit naff, I have to say. The one who could dream other people’s dreams, for example. I would have been tempted to send that one back to the magic shop.

So, as the story begins the most recent descendant of the magical line d...more

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Jul 30, 2010 Dana rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Upon Stella Sparrow's thirteenth birthday she develops a skill to see how other people will die. Each of the woman born in the Sparrow clan has a different ability. Her mother (Jenny) sees other people's dreams and her grandmother (Elinor) can see when people lie. When Stella tries to prevent a murder, her father is accused of homicide.

Jenny must try to protect her daughter from all the media and turmoil of the trial and decides to send her to her hometown of Unity and the ancestral home, Cake H...more

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Mar 01, 2011 Kelly rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: beach-book, fiction, supernatural, dramatic, oh-the-shame, feminist, want-those-hours-back, pretty-cover-bad-book

Some things, Ms. Hoffman, some things need not be explained until the words don't even sound like words anymore. In fact, Ms. Hoffman explains the setting (ie. Cake House, flora, fauna, seasons in MA, etc) so much and in so many different ways, she makes Stephen King look terse. And that, people, is talent.

The characters are one-dimensional, unrealistic, and completely unlikeable. The women in the novel are either two of the following: cold and constantly angry for no valid reason or daft and ri...more

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Mar 09, 2010 Vanessa rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2010-finished

This was a book I just stumbled upon in the library. I was looking for a book read by Susan Ericksen, my favorite female reader. I wasn't sure whether I would like it because it took over half of the first disc to get to any dialog. But I soon got caught up in the lives of the people of Unity. This has some paranormal fantasy, but it is primarily about relationships between mother and daughter, wive and husband, lost and found loves, redemption and forgiveness. There is also a killer in this nov...more

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Jun 25, 2009 Cindy rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Nov 16, 2010 Terri Lucas rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I liked this one a whole lot better than Practical Magic. I felt more inclined to care about the characters, not so much like they were being held and their lives viewed from a distance as before. But that sense of passivity was still there, only less so. So now it has been verified for me that this is the author's style. Lots of narration rich with insight, not so much with the action (I'm not referring to pirate ships or car chases here, either, just literally action - as in something happenin...more

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Dec 11, 2009 MissSusie rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: reviewed

Women of the Sparrow family have unusual gifts. Elinor can detect falsehood. Her daughter, jenny can see people’s dreams when they sleep. Granddaughter Stella has a mental window to the future-a future she might not want to see. When Stella’s premonitions puts her father in jail, wrongly accused of homicide.

This is a story of magical realism and 3 generations of women trying to handle the legacy of the Sparrow family and their own relationships with each other.

This is my first Alice Hoffman book...more

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Feb 05, 2011 Ape rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Well, this one has been sat around a couple of years waiting to be read, and now I've read it. To be honest it's not my favourite Hoffman book so far. I don't know whether she's getting broody about death these days or sentimental about long drawn out deaths, but this one and The Ice Queen are my least favourites.Well, I mean, it was all right, it wasn't awful or anything like that.

So basic plot - it focuses on a family, the Sparrows, who always have baby girls - just the one seemingly per gene...more

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Sep 08, 2012 Gaëlle rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: chick-lit, fantasy, read-in-2012, stars-4

Under the pretext of supernatural "gifts" being bestowed on the girls of the Sparrow family they day they turn 13, The Probable Future follows a few months in the lives of Stella, 13, her mother Jenny and her grandmother Elinor, all of whom are in conflict with each other.

More than a fantasy novel (the aforementioned supernatural aspect is not a big part of the plot), the book is the beautifully-written story of a family, and I think it depicts with a lot of honesty and realism the relationship...more

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Aug 19, 2011 Marion Marchetto rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: alice-hoffman

I found this book at a book sale and thought it sounded like a good story. Well, I was wrong. It is a GREAT story!

The plot hearkens back to the day when a young girl walks out of the woods and into a colonial New England town. She has the ability to call the birds to her (sparrows) and thus is given the last name of Sparrow. From her untimely death to the present each of her female descendents is given a special ability on her thirteenth birthday. Each one is unique and serves a different purpo...more

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Aug 04, 2009 Schmacko rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

(This is a little long, cuz I get bitchy.)

There’s an audience for this type of Hoffman novel. I probably ain’t it.

I would guess that Hoffman’s core readers as transcendental herbalists from Martha’s Vineyard, and I’m sure I’m not that! So, maybe I was destined to dislike this book

The Probable Future is about the three most recent generations of the Sparrow women. All Sparrow women have witch-like gifts, like being about to sniff out liars or the talent to predict the mode of others’ deaths. It’...more (This is a little long, cuz I get bitchy.)

There’s an audience for this type of Hoffman novel. I probably ain’t it.

I would guess that Hoffman’s core readers as transcendental herbalists from Martha’s Vineyard, and I’m sure I’m not that! So, maybe I was destined to dislike this book

The Probable Future is about the three most recent generations of the Sparrow women. All Sparrow women have witch-like gifts, like being about to sniff out liars or the talent to predict the mode of others’ deaths. It’s this last gift that gets the teenaged Stella Sparrow in trouble. She foresees a brutal Boston murder and tries to get her loser dad to stop it before it happens. Instead, he gets arrested for the crime. So Stella and her mom flee to small-town Massachusetts to hide out with the cantankerous grandma. Here they come to understand more about 13 generations of Sparrow women and their gifts.

Although I love Hoffman’s idea of domestic witchcraft and magic, I find her execution fluffy and unsurprising – the story arc is basically the stuff of Lifetime films, with a small bit of New England witchery thrown in. The sum product is a mystical version of a Laura Ashley gift basket, replete with a pale pastel bow to wrap the whole damn thing up too neatly at the end.

It also pisses me off that the females are seen as flawed but human, and many of the males are simply slackers, demons, pricks or buffoons. There’s not a lot of singularity here; I wouldn’t want to spend an unexpected amount of time with ANY of Hoffman’s two-dimensional characters. She defines too much of them by likes and dislikes and not enough by action intrinsic to the plot. Many of the conflicts could’ve simply been fixed with a good conversation. None of these people are witty, deep or complex.

I also distinctly dislike when authors write shallow “mustache twisting” villains; this book has one of the shallowest. And of course it’s a man, because I think Hoffman thinks this means she’s being feminist. (I suppose a female moustache-twister would be too scary and weird, though…all that facial hair.)

Hoffman’s book is missing a good question. The Probable Future possessed absolutely no thematic complications, comic or dramatic. (There are bumper sticker themes: “Family is good.” “Change is good.”) There was no point where I pondered, “God, what would I do?!? How would I handle this situation?!?” I never thought the author was taking any intellectual or emotional risks. The solutions to the characters’ problems were always obvious. Often, I didn’t care. Sometimes I even thought of a very quick, easy solution the characters were to vapid to consider.

Finally, all the description of horticulture, of bird wings, of flavored tea, gets old after a while. These aspects are buried in corny lines like, “Eleanor knew that you couldn’t tell anything about a new flower before it bloomed, just like you cannot tell truth about young people until they blossom into adulthood.”

My major quibbles being duly noted, Hoffman’s use of magic—casual, almost commonplace—is wonderful. I just wish she could’ve made a more unexpected plot with richer characterization. And she can end the book with us pondering a few questions, and I wouldn’t complain. I could actually live through the detailed descriptions of flora, fauna and food. But for all of its magic, the worst part of The Probable Future is how banal its characters are; it’s like Martha Stewart for the Wiccan set.

But then again, I suspect I am not the target audience here.

(By the way, I’ve also read Practical Magic, Second Nature and Seventh Heaven. Last night I tried to give Hoffman one more chance with Here on Earth. But after 40 pages, I had to put it down. It has the same characters—same struggling mom, same Gothy daughter. It possessed the same cursed land. It took place in a small Massachusetts town, like The Probable Future. It was scary how repetitive this seemed. I had to quit.)
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Francheska River King and Turtle Moon might be more suited for you. I think you will still be disappointed with the character development (just her style) but th...more
Nov 13, 2011 07:26am

Schmacko LOL, thanks - yeah, I *want* someone out there to do something with magic, modern American domesticity, AND character. The problem is that I'll take c...more
updated Nov 13, 2011 09:26am

Francheska Nope, I have not read that one...I don't think. Hey, you might try Joshilyn Jackson - Gods in Alabama and Back Seat Saints. “Flawed but Beautiful" is...more
Nov 13, 2011 03:30pm

Jan 20, 2011 Jackie Van Buren rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobook

I enjoyed this magical and picturesque story about a family of women descended from a girl who ran out of the woods into a tiny Massachusetts one day, speaking an unknown language. Each woman who descended from Rebecca Sparrow is born in the spring and has a unique ability they discover on their 13th birthday.
Whereas Hoffman could have focused far more on these abilities, such as the ability to see what fate will befall a person or when a person lies, The Probable Future is more about matriarc...more

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Aug 07, 2011 Jodie rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011, speakeasy-bookclub

3.5 stars.
An atmospheric story set in an idyllic picturesque town. I liked this book but there were parts of it that were lacking. The setting is really wonderful. Ms Hoffman has a way of describing gardens and houses and towns that are so realistic that as a reader you really can picture the scenes that her characters are in. I loved the take on the Sparrow family women and there "gifts" and I really appreciated the strength of these women that went back generations in the Massachusetts small...more

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Aug 06, 2009 Marvin rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Hoffman is, as always, a good writer, with brilliant writing and keen psychological and emotional insight into her characters, especially her adolescent ones. This book confirms her strengths, except it's probably a little softer around the edges than most of her other books. Here the central characters are many generations (especially the last 3) of women in a New England family, each of whom discovers at age 13 a special gift, such as the ability to tell when someone is lying, to dream other p...more

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About Alice Hoffman

Alice Hoffman was born in New York City on March 16, 1952 and grew up on Long Island. After graduating from high school in 1969, she attended Adelphi University, from which she received a BA, and then received a Mirrellees Fellowship to the Stanford University Creative Writing Center, which she attended in 1973 and 74, receiving an MA in creative writing. She currently lives in Boston and New York...more Alice Hoffman was born in New York City on March 16, 1952 and grew up on Long Island. After graduating from high school in 1969, she attended Adelphi University, from which she received a BA, and then received a Mirrellees Fellowship to the Stanford University Creative Writing Center, which she attended in 1973 and 74, receiving an MA in creative writing. She currently lives in Boston and New York.

Hoffman’s first novel, PROPERTY OF, was written at the age of twenty-one, while she was studying at Stanford, and published shortly thereafter by Farrar Straus and Giroux. She credits her mentor, professor and writer Albert J. Guerard, and his wife, the writer Maclin Bocock Guerard, for helping her to publish her first short story in the magazine Fiction. Editor Ted Solotaroff then contacted her to ask if she had a novel, at which point she quickly began to write what was to become PROPERTY OF, a section of which was published in Mr. Solotaroff’s magazine, American Review.

Since that remarkable beginning, Alice Hoffman has become one of our most distinguished novelists. She has published a total of sixteen novels, two books of short fiction, and eight books for children and young adults. Her novel, HERE ON EARTH, an Oprah Book Club choice, was a modern reworking of some of the themes of Emily Bronte’s masterpiece Wuthering Heights. PRACTICAL MAGIC was made into a Warner film starring Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman. Her novel, AT RISK, which concerns a family dealing with AIDS, can be found on the reading lists of many universities, colleges and secondary schools. Hoffman’s advance from LOCAL GIRLS, a collection of inter-related fictions about love and loss on Long Island, was donated to help create the Hoffman Breast Center at Mt. Auburn Hospital in Cambridge, MA. BLACKBIRD HOUSE is a book of stories centering around an old farm on Cape Cod. Hoffman's recent books include AQUARMARINE and INDIGO, novels for pre-teens, and The New York Times bestsellers THE RIVER KING, BLUE DIARY, THE PROBABLE FUTURE, and THE ICE QUEEN. GREEN ANGEL, a post-apocalyptic fairy tale about loss and love, was published by Scholastic and THE FORETELLING, a book about an Amazon girl in the Bronze Age, was published by Little Brown. This fall Little Brown published the teen novel INCANTATION, a story about hidden Jews during the Spanish Inquisition, which Publishers Weekly has chosen as one of the best books of the year. In January 2007, SKYLIGHT CONFESSIONS, a novel about one family’s secret history, was released on the 30th anniversary of the publication of Hoffman’s first novel.

Hoffman’s work has been published in more than twenty translations and more than one hundred foreign editions. Her novels have received mention as notable books of the year by The New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, The Los Angeles Times, Library Journal, and People Magazine. She has also worked as a screenwriter and is the author of the original screenplay “Independence Day,” a film starring Kathleen Quinlan and Diane Weist. Her short fiction and non-fiction have appeared in The New York Times, The Boston Globe Magazine, Kenyon Review, Redbook, Architectural Digest, Gourmet, Self, and other magazines. Her teen novel AQUAMARINE was recently made into a film starring Emma Roberts.
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“Love was like that, like a dream you didn't quite understand, one in which you didn't necessarily know what you were looking at until it was right in front of you.” — 5 people liked it

“what was a rose but the living proof of desire, the single best evidence of human longing and earthly devotion. but desire could be twisted,after all, and Jealousy was the name of the rose that did well in arid souls.” — 3 people liked it

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