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A Novel
The brand-new series from the bestselling author of Practical Magic, following two brilliant young women in 1950s Cambridge, Massachusetts, as they become immersed in a mysterious secret group of witches at Radcliffe known as the Lilith Society.
Once upon a time, women were drowned in the river and the only witnesses were the crows in the trees. The Puritans blamed Eve for the sins of the world. That was when we began to meet in the name of Lilith, Adam's first wife—banished for refusing to do as she was told.
We Fly Together…
By the 1950s, Cambridge, Massachusetts feels far removed from the legendary witch trials that marked its early days as a colony. Ava, a bright young woman from a small town in Maine, arrives for her first year at Radcliffe College. There, she meets Lauren, her opposite in every way—the wild and brazen daughter of a wealthy and well-established Cambridge family. But the two have more in common than they think. Both are recruited by the Lilith Society, a secret organization of witches at Radcliffe dating back to colonial times. As they learn more about their legacy, Ava and Lauren form a close bond that is put to the test as they learn to navigate their new power, friendship, and love.
While Radcliffe seems like a safe haven, the shadow of McCarthyism looms large, an ever-present threat to the flourishing creative and intellectual life in Cambridge. And as girls from the Lilith Society begin to go missing, Ava and Lauren realize the witch trials of the past may not be as deeply buried as they once believed.
"[A] sagely bewitching immersion in New England history, magic, misogyny, and resistance... Spiked with fascinating facts, incandescent with lush evocations of nature and the supernatural, and propelled by ravishing and suspenseful struggles for love against all odds, this is an enrapturing, illuminating, and slyly relevant saga." —Booklist (starred review)
"Hoffman again draws on lore and a strong sense of place to root her tale of magic, feminism, and sisterly love. Her characters shine… This is a book that knows what it wants to say and says it. A welcome novel for Hoffman fans and readers of fantastical fiction." —Kirkus Reviews
"Enticing… Hoffman proves she's still capable of magic." —Publishers Weekly
"Rich with history, heartbreak, and magic, Hoffman's tale of privilege and persecution expertly navigates past and present, reality and fantasy, all of it rendered in brilliant detail. Each twist of fate feels crueler than the last, and I loved watching these characters fight for every hard-won moment of love and redemption. Utterly spellbinding." —Leigh Bardugo, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Ninth House and The Familiar
"Alice Hoffman introduces us to a whole new world of witches and wonders in The Witches of Cambridge. Richly atmospheric and brimming over with Hoffman's love of family, history, and books, the reader is ushered into the dark halls of academia where secret societies and New England's magical legacy are set against the dangers of the McCarthy era. Hoffman twists together secrets and silences, past and present, into a timely and compelling tale that asks, "who can you trust?" —Deborah Harkness, #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Discovery of Witches and the All Souls Trilogy
This information about The Witches of Cambridge was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Photo: Deborah Feingold
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.
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 ...
... Full Biography
Author Interview
Link to Alice Hoffman's Website
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