Seventh Heaven - by Alice Hoffman (Paperback)

About the Book

In the late 1950s, when Nora Silk moves into Hemlock street, the neighbors are shocked by her Toreador pants and scandalous behavior. But when they get to know her, they begin to see other things in Nora--and this Long Island town will never be the same. A "New York Times" bestseller.

Book Synopsis

"Part American Graffiti, part early Updike, Seventh Heaven simultaneously chronicles the coming of age of a group of teenagers in a Long Island town, and the gradual dissolution of their parents' repressed, middle-class world...A parable about changing times and changing values"(The New York Times) from the bestselling author of The Rules of Magic.

Nora Silk doesn't really fit in on Hemlock Street, where every house looks the same. She's divorced. She wears a charm bracelet and high heels and red toreador pants. And the way she raises her kids is a scandal. But as time passes, the neighbors start having second thoughts about Nora. The women's apprehension evolves into admiration. The men's lust evolves into awe. The children are drawn to her in ways they can't explain. And everyone on this little street in 1959 Long Island seems to sense the possibilities and perils of a different kind of future when they look at Nora Silk. An extraordinary novel, Seventh Heaven takes us back to a time when the exotic both terrified and intrigued us, and despite our most desperate attempts, our passions and secrets remained as stubbornly alive as the weeds in our well-trimmed lawns.

Review Quotes

Praise for Seventh Heaven

"A pleasure...Seventh Heaven is not only entertaining--it gives one new respect for tender suburban dreams."--Los Angeles Times Book Review

"A consummate joy...magical."--The Washington Post Book World

"Before you know it, you're half in love with the ordinary people who inhabit this book; you're seduced by their susceptibility to the remarkable."--The New Yorker

"Seamless storytelling...vivid characters...a lively pace and plenty of surprises."--USA Today

"Powerful...sparkling...Seventh Heaven is a major accomplishment."--The Boston Globe

"Stirring, stunning...by far [her] best book."--Time

"Brilliant and astonishing...Suffused with magic. If ever a book deserved to be called 'haunting, ' this is it. In every sense of the word."--Cosmopolitan

"Terrific...Seventh Heaven is one of those rare novels so abundant with life it seems to overflow its own pages...Her storytelling gifts are those of a master."--Newsweek

"Beautifully told."--People

"Literary magic...A beautiful, deceptively simple story about ordinary life in an ordinary housing development nestled beside the Southern State Parkway...Hoffman breaks down the barriers of time, distance, and reticence. She takes us inside the houses of Hemlock Street and shows us how our ordinary neighbors--like ouselves--are both unique and universal, and worthy of love."--Newsday

"In the full flowering of her extraordinary talent, Hoffman has produced a wise, poignant and uplifting novel luminous with the sensitive evocation of ordinary lives...As usual she tells more than a compulsively readable story. She does magic, she unsettles you and she leaves you feeling emotionally purged and satisfied."--Publishers Weekly

"[A] deft blend of magical realism and sociological truth."--Chicago Tribune

About the Author

Alice Hoffman is the bestselling author of more than thirty works of fiction, including The Invisible Hour, The World That We Knew, Practical Magic, The Rules of Magic (A Reese's Book Club pick), Magic Lessons, The Book of Magic, Here on Earth (An Oprah's Book Club pick), and The Dovekeepers. She lives near Boston.