With “incantatory prose” that “sweeps over the reader like a dream,” (Philadelphia Inquirer), Hoffman follows her celebrated bestseller The Probable Future, with an evocative work that traces the lives of the various occupants of an old Massachusetts house over a span of two hundred years.In a rare and gorgeous departure, beloved novelist Alice Hoffman weaves a web of tales, all set in Blackbird … of tales, all set in Blackbird House. This small farm on the outer reaches of Cape Cod is a place that is as bewitching and alive as the characters we meet: Violet, a brilliant girl who is in love with books and with a man destined to betray her; Lysander Wynn, attacked by a halibut as big as a horse, certain that his life is ruined until a boarder wearing red boots arrives to change everything; Maya Cooper, who does not understand the true meaning of the love between her mother and father until it is nearly too late. From the time of the British occupation of Massachusetts to our own modern world, family after family’s lives are inexorably changed, not only by the people they love but by the lives they lead inside Blackbird House.
These interconnected narratives are as intelligent as they are haunting, as luminous as they are unusual. Inside Blackbird House more than a dozen men and women learn how love transforms us and how it is the one lasting element in our lives. The past both dissipates and remains contained inside the rooms of Blackbird House, where there are terrible secrets, inspired beauty, and, above all else, a spirit of coming home.
From the writer Time has said tells “truths powerful enough to break a reader’s heart” comes a glorious travelogue through time and fate, through loss and love and survival. Welcome to Blackbird House.
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It seems that this author always hits a home run for me. The format was engaging and the characters were all well drawn. I don’t usually care for shorts or sketches but was sorry to leave this house behind.
disjointed, characters not developed
Like her “Red Garden,” this follows generations of residents in an old house, with their intertwined stories. Fast, interesting read
One of those books that you want to go on forever.
Unique and memorable.
I loved the interwoven stories of the characters who lived in Blackbird House; each different but connected.
Hoffman’s books are beautifully written fairy tales for adults. It is always a bittersweet moment when the last words on the last page are read…
Yet another wonderful Hoffman novel. A bit different yet believable if you choose to believe.
Not my favorite Alice Hoffman. Well written, as usual, but the story didn’t hold my attention or make me care for the characters.
This was a great book. Alice Hoffman always delivers.
I enjoyed the twists and turns, as you went through the lives of the various owners of Blackbird House, and how their lives intertwined.
Wonderful boom
These are nice interconnected stories. Worth reading but not what I normally expect from the woman who wrote the exquisite book, The Probable Future. If you want to truly experience her gift, read that.
Interesting style of connecting the chapters.
Alice Hoffman is one of my favorite writers. I love her stories of generations of men and women and children living in the same town, meeting unexpected destinies or creating a fate they had never considered. Sometimes these people are self centered, sometimes they give generously of themselves but the stories are always interesting. One can’t …
Not my type of book
Magical – – Not at all predictable! Just when you think you have it all figured out as an updated recounting of Wuthering Heights, the story shimmers. “Heathcliff” and “Cathy” become less the tragic pawns of fate and assume a more tragic role as victims of a societal illness too often unrecognized and inexplicably excused. Very powerful collage …
Somewhat hard to follow
Loved this book and the beautiful weave of story
I read the whole thing in one long rainy afternoon….couldn’t put it down.