Seventh Heaven

Description

In the summer of 1959 Nora Silk moves into a quiet suburb on Long Island with her two, young sons, a collection of Elvis records and a marked absence of husband. Her glamour and cheerfully chaotic ways immediately arouse the suspicions of the neighbourhood where life runs according to two rules - 'mind your own business and keep up your lawn'. Seventh Heaven is a lyrical, optimistic novel of yearning and desire, 'this writer can cut through to the true magic and true grit beneath' (Financial Times).

Alice Hoffman lives near Boston with her husband and two sons.

A consummate joy...magical. ("Washington Post Book World") "A pleasure... Seventh Heaven is not only entertaining--it gives one new respect for tender suburban dreams."--Los Angeles Times Book Review "Part American Graffiti, part early Updike, Seventh Heaven simultaneously chronicles the coming of age of a group of teenagers in a Long Island town, and the gradual dissolution of their parents' repressed, middle-class world...A parable about changing times and changing values."--The New York Times "A consummate joy...magical."--The Washington Post Book World "Before you know it, you're half in love with the ordinary people who inhabit this book; you're seduced by their susceptibility to the remarkable."--The New Yorker "Seamless storytelling...vivid characters...a lively pace and plenty of surprises."--USA Today "Powerful...sparkling...Seventh Heaven is a major accomplishment."--The Boston Globe "Stirring, stunning...by far [her] best book."--Time "Brilliant and astonishing...Suffused with magic. If ever a book deserved to be called 'haunting, ' this is it. In every sense of the word."--Cosmopolitan "Terrific...Seventh Heaven is one of those rare novels so abundant with life it seems to overflow its own pages...Her storytelling gifts are those of a master."--Newsweek "Beautifully told."--People "Literary magic...A beautiful, deceptively simple story about ordinary life in an ordinary housing development nestled beside the Southern State Parkway...Hoffman breaks down the barriers of time, distance, and reticence. She takes us inside the houses of Hemlock Street and shows us how our ordinary neighbors--like ouselves--are both unique and universal, and worthy of love."--Newsday "In the full flowering of her extraordinary talent, Hoffman has produced a wise, poignant and uplifting novel luminous with the sensitive evocation of ordinary lives...As usual she tells more than a compulsively readable story. She does magic, she unsettles you andy