Bookaroo

Friday, September 04, 2009

The Probable Future

Alice Hoffman has made a name for herself with such novels as Practical Magic, but I have not read her before this. The Probable Future touches on the lives of the Sparrow women, residents of Unity for generations, and definitely different. Each receives a gift on her thirteenth birthday: Elinor is able to smell a lie, her daughter Jenny dreams other people's dreams, and Jenny's daughter Stella can look at a person and see how they will die. Stella's inexperience in dealing with her gift results in her father being jailed for murder, and sets in motion a series of events that transform the Sparrow women and those who love them.

Alice Hoffman writes beautiful and compelling prose. Her characters are distinctive and, for the most part, sympathetic. "Magical" comes to mind--not just the peculiar gifts held by the Sparrow women, but Alice's entrancing voice and spellbinding narrative make this novel one I can highly recommend. The Probable Future is certainly an adult novel, although a mature teen could well enjoy it. I rate it no more than PG, since it eschews sensuality or graphic details.

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