Synopses & Reviews
Review
"Hoffman's best since Illumination Night....The real and the magical worlds are almost seamlessly mixed here, the humor is sharper than in previous books, the characters' eccentricities grow credibly out of their past experiences and the poignant lessons they learn reverberate against the reader's heartstrings, stroked by Hoffman's lyrical prose." Publishers Weekly
Review
"Practical Magic is one of [Hoffman's] best novels, showing on every page her gift for touching ordinary life as if with a wand, to reveal how extraordinary life really is....There's magic throughout the book....But the real spell is the one cast by Hoffman's splendid writing." Newsweek
Review
"Magic, fantasy, and full-tilt love-at-first-sight have figured in all of Hoffman's sexy, funny, and endearing novels, but they blossom as they never have before in her latest effort....Hoffman has created a cosmic romance leavened with just the right touch of pragmatism and humor." Donna Seaman, Booklist
Review
"Practical Magic is vintage Hoffman." School Library Journal
Synopsis
A] delicious fantasy of witchcraft and love in a world where gardens smell of lemon verbena and happy endings are possible. Cosmopolitan The Owens sisters confront the challenges of life and love in this bewitching novel from
New York Times bestselling author Alice Hoffman.
For more than two hundred years, the Owens women have been blamed for everything that has gone wrong in their Massachusetts town. Gillian and Sally have endured that fate as well: as children, the sisters were forever outsiders, taunted, talked about, pointed at. Their elderly aunts almost seemed to encourage the whispers of witchery, with their musty house and their exotic conconctions and their crowd of black cats. But all Gillian and Sally wanted was to escape.
One will do so by marrying, the other by running away. But the bonds they share will bring them back almost as if by magic...
Splendid...Practical Magicis one of Hoffman's] best novels, showing on every page her gift for touching ordinary life as if with a wand, to reveal how extraordinary life really is. Newsweek
"
Synopsis
The Owens sisters confront the challenges of life and love in this bewitching novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Rules of Magic and Magic Lessons. For more than two hundred years, the Owens women have been blamed for everything that has gone wrong in their Massachusetts town. Gillian and Sally have endured that fate as well: as children, the sisters were forever outsiders, taunted, talked about, pointed at. Their elderly aunts almost seemed to encourage the whispers of witchery, with their musty house and their exotic concoctions and their crowd of black cats. But all Gillian and Sally wanted was to escape. One will do so by marrying, the other by running away. But the bonds they share will bring them back--almost as if by magic...
"Splendid...Practical Magic is one of Hoffman's] best novels, showing on every page her gift for touching ordinary life as if with a wand, to reveal how extraordinary life really is."--Newsweek
" A] delicious fantasy of witchcraft and love in a world where gardens smell of lemon verbena and happy endings are possible."--Cosmopolitan
Synopsis
*25th Anniversary Edition*--with a New Introduction by the Author The Owens sisters confront the challenges of life and love in this bewitching novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Rules of Magic and Magic Lessons.
For more than two hundred years, the Owens women have been blamed for everything that has gone wrong in their Massachusetts town. Gillian and Sally have endured that fate as well: as children, the sisters were forever outsiders, taunted, talked about, pointed at. Their elderly aunts almost seemed to encourage the whispers of witchery, with their musty house and their exotic concoctions and their crowd of black cats. But all Gillian and Sally wanted was to escape. One will do so by marrying, the other by running away. But the bonds they share will bring them back--almost as if by magic...
"Splendid...Practical Magic is one of Hoffman's] best novels, showing on every page her gift for touching ordinary life as if with a wand, to reveal how extraordinary life really is."--Newsweek
" A] delicious fantasy of witchcraft and love in a world where gardens smell of lemon verbena and happy endings are possible."--Cosmopolitan
Synopsis
Practical Magic is a tale of two sisters, Gillian and Sally Owens, brought up by their two elderly guardian aunts in a world of spells and exotica from which they eventually escape one by running away, the other by marrying but which never escapes from them. Many years go by before strange circumstances thrust them together again, and again they are in a world that blends the mundane and the mysterious, the familiar and the fantastic, the normal and the numinous. Three generations of Owens women are then united in an experience of unexpected insight and revelation, teaching all of them that the perceptions provided by what is called the magical are rare and wonderful endowments.
About the Author
Alice Hoffman is the author of Blue Diary; Property Of; The Drowning Season; Angel Landing; White Horses; Illumination Night; Fortune's Daughter; At Risk; Seventh Heaven; Turtle Moon; Second Nature; Practical Magic; Here on Earth; Local Girls; and The River King.