The Invisible Hour

by Alice Hoffman

In a place where books were banned there could be no personal freedom, no hope, and no dreams for the future.

Turn someone into a reader and you turn the world around.

“Your mother was sweet and dear, and she knew how to have fun, but back then, things were different, and it was an especially different time for women and girls. I fear that time is with us once again, and women don’t have the right to make decisions about their own bodies. It was a disgrace to be pregnant and unmarried at such a young age, at least among those here on the hill. Especially in this house. They had a dream for her, and that wasn’t it. But she had a dream, too.”

“She was only a girl,” Helen said. “Remember that. But she should have had the choice to decide what to do with her own body and her own fate.”

It was a time when unmarried girls were shamed for getting pregnant, as if pregnancy was a crime they had to pay for with their suffering. I pray that by the time you read this letter, the world will have changed, and girls can make their own choices about what they do with their bodies.

he had best begin to live, and that time on earth was terribly limited; it passed in the blink of an eye. He had not lived his life, he merely existed.

He was in this field, and he could hear the bees.

He truly wished that for the next thousand years all government could be in the hands of women, for men had made such a mess of the world, including his own ancestors, men who’d risen to power and fought to keep it, no matter who they might hurt or destroy.

Had she his opportunities, she would have written five books already, or perhaps ten, but since the world was closed to her, and the door was wide open for him, she would not stand by as he threw away the realm of possibilities which existed in the books he was destined to write.

all things begin with kindness and that all hope began with trust.

Lovesickness was curable; it always had been if it was caught in time.

fishing and writing had a good deal in common. You had to wait and be prepared to catch what came your way.

You had to know the difference between a shadow and the real thing.

He thought of luck and love, how both came to you uninvited, and stayed only as long as they wished to, beyond anyone’s command.

Other men might walk away, they do so every day. Every baby on the hill had a father, but the mothers were the ones held accountable.

This was how it began, with a world that was as real as a river, even though it was made of nothing more than words.

Mia now understood that Joel was well aware that once a girl walked into a library she could never be controlled again.

hear more, but Mia laughed and pulled his large, beautiful hands away so that he would listen. “I promise, you’ll be happy. I’ve seen your future.” “What about you?” he asked, unsure of what he wished the answer to be. He wanted to be missed; he wanted

It was the next day, the start of the future. He turned away from the window. The whole world was out there, but it was also here in this room. The world was at his fingertips.

after she walked down the hill Mia couldn’t hear him anymore. She didn’t have to listen to him. No one did.