Practical Magic - by Alice Hoffman

About the Book

Orphaned at an early age, Gillian and Sally Owen are raised by an aunt who deals in sorcery. The girls long for the normal life and leave home as soon as they can. Years later tragedy strikes and it is then they realize that magic is their gift, not their affliction. By the author of Illumination Night.

Book Synopsis

The Owens sisters confront the challenges of life and love in this bewitching novel from New York Times bestselling author Alice Hoffman--now in a gorgeous deluxe hardcover edition.

This deluxe edition of Practical Magic includes:
- A beautiful new jacket featuring embossing and a full sheet of foil
- Solid black endpapers
- Deckled edges

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

Review Quotes

Praise for Practical Magic

"A beautiful, moving book about the power of love and the desires of the heart."--Denver Post

"Charmingly told, and a good deal of fun."--The New York Times Book Review

"One of her most lyrical works...Hoffman is at her best."--San Francisco Chronicle Book Review

"Written with a light hand and rhythm...Practical Magic has the pace of a fairy tale but with the impact of accomplished fiction."--People

"A sweet, sweet story that like the best fairy tales says more than at first it seems to."--New York Daily News

"[Hoffman] has proved once again her potency as a storyteller, combining the mundane with the fantastic in a totally engaging way."--The Orlando Sentinel

"Hoffman's writing has plenty of power. Her best sentences are like incantations--they won't let you get away."--Kirkus Reviews

"Witches and ghosts, spells and sleight-of-hand weave a fanciful atmosphere in Alice Hoffman's tender comedy about clairvoyance, spells, and family ties."--The Miami Herald

"A cosmic romance leavened with just the right touch of pragmatism and humor."--Booklist

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.