Blackbird House
- Author Alice Hoffman
- Narrator various, various narrators, John Lee, Xe Sands, Amy Rubinate, Richard Powers, Bernadette Dunne, Tavia Gilbert, Cassandra Campbell, Hillary Huber, Laura Hicks, Kate Reading, Carrington MacDuffie, Kirsten Potter
- Publisher Blackstone Publishing
- Publish Date 1 July 2014
- Run Time 5 hours and 46 minutes
- Format Audio
- Genre Fiction: general and literary.
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What to expect
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 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 that 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.
Critics Review
u201cAlice Hoffmanu2019s writing is spellbinding and not simplynbecause of her touches of magic realism: Her unembellished prose andnprimary-colored descriptions recall the directness of fairy tales.u201d
u201cThe stories of BlackbirdnHouse are sharp and imbued with magic. Hoffman peels away layers of time,npainstakingly sifting through two centuries to expose all that can occur by onenfield of pink sweet peas at the end of the world.u201d
u201cThe landscape Alice Hoffman displays in Blackbird House is its own worldnaltogetheru2026Here the relationship of the characters to their surroundings isnseen as a kind of magical bond, expressed in language that is both eerie andnbeautiful.u201d
u201cSweet, sad, touching, and most of all, vibrantly realu2026Eachntale stays true to Hoffmanu2019s form, infused with descriptions of nature, richnemotion, and lifeu2019s complexityu2014each, like a fairy tale, mysterious, bewitching,nand wonderful.u201d
u201cRivetingu2026hauntingu2026masterful.u201d
u201cBlackbird House isnfilled with symbols of the strongest human emotionsu2014hope, devotion, anger,npain. And these are described as beautifully and simply as nature itself.u201d
u201cLush, figurative language evokes epics, ballads, odes, andnfairy tales. Human destiny is determined less by individual initiative or moralnchoice than by fate. To survive and thrive, one must pay heed, one must benattentive to season, history, spirit.u201d
u201cA New England historical patchwork, a literary museumu2026Hoffmanncreates many charming and intriguing people and events to carry her tale.u201d
u201c[Hoffmanu2019s] prose can cast a spell upon even the most stoicnof souls, pulling them into [her] reality as easily as the tides claimingnunwary swimmersu2026Storytelling doesnu2019t get any better.u201d
u201cComplex and intriguingu2026Hoffmanu2019s blend of myth and localnhistory is beguiling and uplifting.u201d
u201cHoffman does everything right in these lyrical stories,nrich with metaphor and meaning.u201d
u201cThe stories showcase Hoffmanu2019s own magical powers ofndescription, demonstrated here by vivid evocations of the lush natural worldnthat springs, almost miraculously, from the sparse and sandy soil.u201d
u201cExquisiteu2026Hoffman captures perfectly the power of place,nthe pull that a land and a house can exert on the imagination and the heart.u201d
u201cTwelve lush and lilting interconnected storiesu2026Hoffmanu2019snlyrical prose weaves an undeniable spell.u201d
u201cThisnfull-cast recording is the perfect production for Alice Hoffmanu2019s linkednstories of life on a two-hundred-year-old Cape Cod farm. The stories farthestnremoved from us in time are the most magical in genreu2026Hoffman fans should be delighted.u201d
u201c[A] deeply moving achievement of lyric power.u201d
u201cPerhaps Hoffman writes so confidently about magicalnoccurrences because her fecund and radiant creativity is itself a form ofnmagic. It certainly seems as though her entrancing and mythological tales flownlike water from a springu2026As thenstories leapfrog from colonial times toward the present, Hoffman, a subtlenconjurer of telling details and ironic predicaments, orchestrates intensenromances and profound sacrifices.u201d
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