The Third Angel

The Third Angel

by Alice Hoffman (Author)

Synopsis

This haunting, poignant and addictive story travels effortlessly across three generations and through time. Unravelling the years from the present to the 1950s, The Third Angel is a compelling novel, set mainly in London, about girls and women who make the wrong choices and have to live with the sometimes unbearable consequences. The Third Angel opens in London in the present day, when an envious sibling comes to her sister's wedding. Their mother's illness cast a shadow over their childhood, and both Madeline and Allie are still searching for something missing in their lives. Back in the Swinging Sixties, the bridegroom's conventional English mother, Frieda, behaves in a wholly unconventional way, and the ghosts of that era still haunt all their lives and a Knightsbridge hotel. Even before that, the seeds of tragedy are sown in the Fifties, when twelve-year-old Lucy first visits London and the same hotel. Precocious, impatient, wise beyond her years, Lucy becomes a go-between for two star-crossed lovers and then holds herself agonisingly responsible for what happens...

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More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 288
Edition: Reprint
Publisher: Chatto & Windus
Published: 03 Apr 2008

ISBN 10: 0701182725
ISBN 13: 9780701182724
Book Overview: Everyday tragedy comes face to face with the magical and inexplicable in this haunting, poignant, addictive novel, which travels effortlessly across three generations and through time.

Media Reviews
Is there an American novelist who understands the complicated and mulitfacted nature of love in all its manifestations -- romantic, familial, platonic -- better than Alice Hoffman?... Some critics have minimed the complexity of Hoffman's work by refering to her as a romance writers. Well, Hoffman is a romance writer, but then so were Flaubert, Proust, the Bronte sisters, and Jane Austen. The Third Angel is indeed a romance, but one of intricacy and pathos, with characters beautifully, believably and empathetically drawn.... The Third Angel represents yet another strong, visceral and deeply, darkly moving tale of love and heatbreak, tragedy and redemption from a writer whose keen ear for the measure struck by the beat of the human heart is unparalleled. The Third Angel is an intense, provocative and throughly affecting novel. -- The Chicago Tribune Like Michael Cunningham's 'The Hours, ' Hoffman's tale weaves the stories of women at key moments in their lives with revelations both stunning and inevitable. -- The Pittsburgh Post Gazette Its realism, combined with a refreshing lightness and its success in portraying emotion with empathy, draws the reader into a deep involvement with the books' appealing yet flawed characters. Each woman faces up to her challengers in her own way, proving that everyone in the end is responsible for his or her own destiny. -- The Economist Hoffman's luminous language bounces us into accepting not only coincident but also its consequences. -- The Boston Globe Alice Hoffman paints her books in big strokes and bright colors, with slashes of romantic reds and blacks. She's a teller of fairy tells, well-worn or new. -- The Columbus Dispatch With a graceful nod to the power of redemption, Alice Hoffman reminds readers we are all hurt and broken, stumbling through life and fumbling for love, but sometimes we can still find out way to where we want to go. -- Cha
Author Bio
Alice Hoffman is the bestselling author of acclaimed novels, including Here on Earth (an Oprah Book Club selection), Practical Magic (a Hollywood film), The River King, Blue Diary, Turtle Moon and most recently Skylight Confessions. Blackbird House was shortlisted for the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award. She divides her time between Boston and New York City.