The Story Sisters

A Novel

By: Alice Hoffman

Narrated by: Nancy Travis

Length: 10 hrs and 18 mins

Publisher's summary

A spellbinding coming of age novel about three sisters and the relationships and choices that shape their lives from the best-selling author of Reese Witherspoon Book Club pick, The Rules of Magic

"This bewitching novel explores the bonds of sisterhood like a haunting modern fairy tale." (Glamour)

Each of three sisters—Elv, Claire, and Meg—has a fate she must meet alone: one on a country road, one in the streets of Paris, and one in the corridors of her own imagination.

Inhabiting their world are a charismatic man who cannot tell the truth, a neighbor who is not who he appears to be, a clumsy boy in Paris who falls in love and stays there, a detective who finds his heart's desire, and a demon who will not let go.

What does a mother do when one of her children goes astray? How does she save one daughter without sacrificing the others? How deep can love go, and how far can it take you? These are the questions this luminous novel asks.

At once a coming-of-age tale, a family saga, and a love story of sensual longing, The Story Sisters sifts through the miraculous and the mundane as the girls become women and their choices haunt them, change them and, finally, redeem them. It confirms Alice Hoffman's reputation as "a writer whose keen ear for the measure struck by the beat of the human heart is unparalleled". (The Chicago Tribune).

©2009 Alice Hoffman (P)2009 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“Hoffman’s characters are always moving back and forth, challenging our perceptions, daring us to judge them. Her sentences tremble with allegory. . . . In the end, The Story Sisters, for all its magic realism, is about a family navigating through motherhood, sisterhood, daughterhood. It’s Little Women on mushrooms. (Bookish sisters beware).”–New York Times Book Review

“Hoffman is celebrated for her ability to conjure plausible alternative realities, to sprinkle her landscapes with witches and other mythical creatures, while keeping her stories closely tethered to familiar terrain. There’s a mysticism that swirls about her works but, like a late-morning fog, it eventually burns off to reveal a physical and emotional topography that most all of us can recognize.”–Chicago Tribune

"This bewitching novel explores the bonds of sisterhood like a haunting modern fairy tale."–Glamour

Absolutly worth it!

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

Almost every part moves me. Alice writing and the narrators performence does that to you!

An Intense Story of Grief

overall great read although a little long in certain parts. A strong story of grief and dealing with pain. nothing turns out as expected but a true reflection of life.

Tears...Laughter...Heart....Sisters

This story was amazing! It had everything you could want in a story. The writing style is so deep and powerful you can almost feel every color she describes....

Amazing

A rich, beautiful, fascinating Story that reminds you what a gift it is to be human.

Beautiful beyond words

This is a story you will never forget. The narration by Nancy Travis is breathtaking, so beautiful, so evocative.

Haunting Hoffman

A quick, happy fix? Not this novel, but magically like life, if you can endure and hold on through the dark, rough squalls of the storm, you will find rich, warm yellow light on the other side. I find this a more satisfying read than "The Third Angel," which I loved, but this "The Story Sisters" is more lyrical, despite the tragedy lurking around every echoing corridor, beauty survives, joy bursts up like tomatoes of gold and green and brown in surprising places. Elv and Meg are fully drawn characters, even if they frustrate you to near death with their angst and self-loathing. But life has bad things, and often we lie to ourselves, hardly admitting that dark secret from back when, but it is always there, the demonic shadow, following along, pouncing upon every doubt, whispering in punctuation to every flaw. Alice Hoffman shows us that despite the bad things in every story, life is worth living, it is magical, and to my heart this story comes close to my two favorites "The Probable Future" and "Practical Magic." No romantic fluff here, but true romance, bone deep, painful, mysterious and haunting. There are funerals, and hardly a wedding, and more than a couple of calamities. But there is also invented language, fireflies of crystalline enchantment flitting all about the story. Read this novel once, and it is assured you will read it again. Art et Amour Toujours

The Story Sisters will Rip Your Heart Out in a Beautiful Way

Hoffman, once again, broke my heart. Every woman will feel The Story Sisters at their core.

Anothe Alice Hoffman favorite

I love the richness of the characters, the way the story unfolds, the magical mystery of it all. It’s hard to put one genre on Alice Hoffman’s books. They tell a deep story, an intriguing story with strong characters often women who somehow find their way in a world full of a little fantasy. Can’t wait to read another one of her books.

Review for The story Sisters

I am never disappointed by Alice Hoffman’s stories. I could not stop reading/listening to this book. I never put it down. I can always relate to her writings. Thank-you Alice Hoffman!

Breathtaking

What a deeply profound and dark story… a n amazing exploration of love and darkness that comes upon the innocent and how it can twist and turn… and the exploration of love.