The inevitability of love and the torment and bliss of men and women gripped by desire is Hoffman's theme here, and she plays those variations with a new emphasis on sex scenes-there's plenty of steamy detail and a pervasive use of the f-word. Meanwhile, Sally's daughters, replicas of their mother and their aunt, experience their own sexual awakenings. Impulsive, seductive Gillian goes through three divorces before she arrives at Sally's house with a dead body in her car. Steady, conscientious Sally marries, has two daughters and is widowed early. Orphaned Sally and Gillian Owens, raised by their spinster aunts in a spooky old house, grow up observing desperate women buying love potions in the kitchen and vow never to commit their hearts to passion. The Owens women have been witches for several generations. 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. Again a scrim of magic lies gently over her fictional world, in which lilacs bloom riotously in July, a lovesick boy's elbows sizzle on a diner countertop and a toad expectorates a silver ring. Her 11th novel is Hoffman's best since Illumination Night.

' A scrim of magic lies gently over fictional world, in which lilacs bloom riotously in July, a lovesick boy's elbows sizzle on a diner countertop and a toad expectorates a silver ring.' Publishers Weekly ‘Dark comedy and a light touch carry the story along to a truly Gothic climax, complete with heaving skies and witchery on the lawn’ New York Times ‘What do you do when your long lost little sister shows up on your suburban front step… a dead man in the Oldsmobile that’s blocking your driveway? …You help her bury him in your backyard, underneath a wilting lilac bush that will suddenly spring back to life, bearing masses of heady flowers that remind everyone who passes by of desires they thought they’d long since stifled’ Vogue ‘ delicious fantasy of witchcraft and love in a world where gardens smell of lemon verbena and happy endings are possible’ Cosmopolitan An enchanting tale of love, forgiveness and family, Practical Magic is beloved of readers of all ages. And they’ll find that no matter what else may happen, they’ll always have each other. The name of this Master is Llanos (pronounced Janos). A great ineffable Master lives in that star. The rose is influenced by Venus, the star of love, the morning star. Years later, however, tragedy will bring the sisters back together. Those poor souls who have a very deep emotional pain let them be cured with the magic of the roses. All Gillian and Sally ever wanted was to get away.Īnd eventually they do - one marries, the other runs as far from home as she can manage. The beloved classic novel, the basis of the classic film starring Nicole Kidman and Sandra BullockĪs children, sisters Gillian and Sally were forever outsiders in their small New England town, teased, taunted and shunned for the air of magic that seems to sparkle in the air around them.

Book practical magic flowers