Hoffman's multi-generational portrait of a complicated family begins with the meeting of a mismatched couple.
Critic Reviews
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Outstanding
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Kirkus Reviews
Achingly beautiful and filled with heart-wrenchingly real characters: one of Hoffman's best. [15 Sept 2006, p.924]
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Favorable
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The Guardian Anna Shapiro
I didn't want to like it - I was so irritated by the incantatory, mythical tone and the withholding of ordinary kinds of personal information - but once I got past that, I was reading much the way you'd watch a television drama you happen on when channel-surfing, hooked by gorgeous costumes or an actor you like or just the crucial bit of mystery that makes you have to know how it will turn out.
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Favorable
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Library Journal Beth E. Andersen
Hoffman's gift for framing otherworldly elements in down-to-earth language intensifies the flawed resolve of the tragic Moodys as they desperately pummel their way through loss and grief and, maybe, redemption. [1 Oct 2006, p.58]
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Favorable
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Boston Globe Ann Harleman
A wholly original form. The result might be called fairy-tale realism. You may embrace it or you may resist it, but you won't forget it.
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Favorable
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Los Angeles Times Jane Ciabattari
There is no doubt that Hoffman has mastered her characteristic approach to the supernatural, a mix of magical elements and the mundane developed over time and nurtured by the late legendary editor Faith Sale.
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Favorable
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Booklist Donna Seaman
Hoffman's shimmering, multigenerational melodrama bewitches with supernatural imagery. [1 0ct 2006, p.4]
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Mixed
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The New York Times Book Review Louisa Thomas
Hoffman’s focus on the fantastic -- on the sky rather than the ground -- is a shame, because it clouds the novel’s enduring lessons: There are many things in life that can’t be explained.
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Mixed
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Wall Street Journal Brooke Allen
The kind of book that might best be described as a romance novel for college graduates. The book has enough intellectual trappings to flatter readers into thinking that they are getting some mental nourishment, but in essence it is pure romance novel and nothing more.
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Mixed
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Washington Post Carolyn See
While many sensible people will dismiss this story as sentimental slush, the emotionally oppressed might find some tenuous consolation here.
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Mixed
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The Independent Emma Hagestadt
As ever, Hoffman's dreamy storytelling is a mixed blessing.
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Mixed
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Publishers Weekly
Ghostly apparitions lend an air of dark enchantment, though the numerous dream sequences feel heavy-handed. [6 Nov 2006, p.37]
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