Blackbird House

By: Alice Hoffman

Narrated by: John Lee, Xe Sands, Amy Rubinate, Richard Powers, Bernadette Dunne, Tavia Gilbert, Cassandra Campbell, Hillary Huber

Length: 5 hrs and 45 mins

Publisher's summary

Hoffman follows her celebrated bestseller The Probable Future with an evocative work that traces the lives of the various occupants of an old Massachusetts house over a span of two hundred years.

In a rare and gorgeous departure, beloved novelist Alice Hoffman weaves a web of tales, all set in Blackbird House. This small farm on the outer reaches of Cape Cod is a place that is as bewitching and alive as the characters we meet: Violet, a brilliant girl who is in love with books and with a man destined to betray her; Lysander Wynn, attacked by a halibut as big as a horse, certain that his life is ruined until a boarder wearing red boots arrives to change everything; Maya Cooper, who does not understand the true meaning of the love between her mother and father until it is nearly too late. From the time of the British occupation of Massachusetts to our own modern world, family after family's lives are inexorably changed, not only by the people they love but by the lives they lead inside Blackbird House.

These interconnected narratives are as intelligent as they are haunting, as luminous as they are unusual. Inside Blackbird House more than a dozen men and women learn how love transforms us and how it is the one lasting element in our lives. The past both dissipates and remains contained inside the rooms of Blackbird House, where there are terrible secrets, inspired beauty, and, above all else, a spirit of coming home.

Narrated by John Lee, Se Sands, Amy Rubinate, Paul Michael Garcia, Bernadette Dunne, Tavia Gilbert, Cassandra Campbell, Hillary Huber, Kirsten Potter, Carrington McDuffie, Kate Reading, and Laura Hicks.

©2004 Alice Hoffman (P)2014 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

short stories

I'm a fan of Alice Hoffman don't get me wrong I love her weaving of tales and the magic she sprinkles into them, however this was a hard book for me to get through. Wth 11 different story lines all loosely linked together there was no real climax and the book took on more of a collection of short stories feel.

Land is Character

Let's suppose there was a plot of land that was the main character of a book. I would have done better had I known that simple fact. For some reason, the Kindle version did not download properly so I just listened to the Audible version.

I could have done without the first narrator. Oh, goodness what a bombastic voice! The rest of the narrators were great. In fact, it was fun that each chapter, which was each new inhabitant of the property got a new voice many of them were fantastic!

When I finally got my Kindle to download, I did much better as I could read along with the Audible. In fact, it Whispersynched perfectly.

Alice Hoffman has become one of my favorite authors. Remember she is the one who wrote Practical Magic. So I had to grab this when it was on special. This one read similarly to the Red Garden. She refers to witches and red shoes and other symbolism that would be fun to discuss in a book group.

I may have to read this again someday as I know there was a lot more there than I absorbed. One of my issues with the book was I wanted more of each resident. I always felt each story too short. Maybe I wanted a series?

wow this book was wonderful

pay attention because this book has many twists and turns. I loved it so much. I'm actually going to listen to it again right away

Well written

I truly enjoyed having a different narrator for each family story in the book! It was a brilliant way to allow the listener to have a clear divide of each story within the book. All narrators were extremely good. I became invested in each family. Well done

Interesting concept w/a house as a character

A series of short stories with a house and surrounding property in Massachusetts as a main character. The property is followed from when a house is first built till when it needs renovation and is to be sold.
Most of the narrators are excellent. Some stories are excellent, some are not. Many slices of life are presented. While the writing is always good, The lives of some of the characters are much more interesting than the lives of other characters and as such the book chapters vary in likability and interest.

What?? Did I miss something?

I liked all the different readers and the story was engaging but I couldn’t believe the end. Was that really the end? No closure.. just the end.

Lovely

Well written, evocative short stories surrounding a single house from the American War of Independence until the present.

Not much "happens" in the stories, they are mostly about love -- not necessarily romantic, all kinds -- in different contexts and situations.

Beautifully done.

Loved it.. wishing for more.

The whole collection was brilliant. A continual story through time. With little detail repeated in whole new ways. My favorite was chapter 2. I could listen to that one over and over again.

Cape Cod Memories of ones childhood!

I absolutely loved these short stories and recommend. this to any age group because there's something for any age to enjoy..

Boo....

Narration was on point. Story was pointless... Where were you Alice Hoffman?? Not her normal storytelling.

Got me through isolation

I loved this story. Ive been Confined to a room for 10 days with covid. Thank god for audiobooks & their free books

enjoyable

Alice Hoffman never fails to bring her stories to life. I liked the way it was all based around the same house but hundreds of years apart.

Difficult to follow as audiobook

This was a well written and intriguing book with lots of fascinating characters each with a good story to tell. It’s well read by a number of narrators. My only reservation is about it being an audiobook. As all the twelve stories are interlinked I would have loved a paper copy to easily flip backwards to pick up all the links and cross referencing as I found I lost a lot of the links that cemented all the stories together.

What was that about?

I listened to this on Audible. I must say this book had me confused and I found the story just didn't hold my attention. I usually love Alice Hoffman, but this time I couldn't connect with her words. That saddens me, cos the book blurb was what drew me into selecting this book in the first place. So, beats me what went wrong and why. Oh don't get me wrong, the narration was brilliant as were the performances. The story failed me. Or did I fail to appreciate it? My apologies Alice Hoffman.

Loved it!

Loved listening to this book. Made me want to go to the house and be one of the people who lived there, smell the sweet peas and smell and pick the turnips.

Unusual book

This was a very different kind of book. It consists of several short stories all about the residents of one house over many years. Although I enjoyed it I did find that sometimes I wanted more information about how a particular character/family fared. Also somethings were not clearly explained. A white blackbird featured in most if not all of the stories yet the significance was never really explained. Was it supposed to be the spirit of the boy who died at the beginning of the story? I didn’t really understand the last chapter either so felt rather underwhelmed with the ending. Still all that being said I’m glad I listened to if

Great short stories that are linked. Very evocativ

This is beautifully written and brings to life the inhabitants of a house over a few hundred years. Very enjoyable.

Super collection of entwined short stories

Really enjoyed this more than I thought I would. The marmite house that keeps hooking into different Peoples lives.

brilliant book

The book was great and had a great storyline. It was easy to differentiated between the different story lines due to the change in narrator for each. However, some of the narrators did the story no justice but some were great.

Unusual and interesting .

a story about the inhabitants of one house throughout changing time periods... all the stories' characters and challenges different but the house and land the main character.. I liked it a lot! ..the only reason I gave a 4 not 5 for the story was I wanted it to be a bit longer .!