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Alice Hoffman, author of The Invisible Hour

One brilliant June day when Mia Jacob can no longer see a way to survive, the power of words saves her. THE SCARLET LETTER was written almost 200 years earlier, but it seems to tell the story of Mia’s mother, Ivy, and their life inside the Community --- an oppressive cult in western Massachusetts where contact with the outside world is forbidden, and books are considered evil. But how could this be? How could Nathaniel Hawthorne have so perfectly captured the pain and loss that Mia carries inside her? Through a journey of heartbreak, love and time, Mia must abandon the rules she was raised with at the Community. As she does, she realizes that reading can transport you to other worlds or bring them to you, and that readers and writers affect one another in mysterious ways.

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Week of May 20, 2024

Paperback releases for the week of May 20th include THE RIVER WE REMEMBER, a dazzling stand-alone novel from William Kent Krueger, in which a small Minnesota town is rocked by the murder of its most powerful citizen, pouring fresh fuel on old grievances; Alice Hoffman's THE INVISIBLE HOUR, an enchanting novel about love, heartbreak, self-discovery and the enduring magic of books; THE ONLY ONE LEFT by Riley Sager, a Gothic chiller about a young caregiver assigned to work for a woman accused of a Lizzie Borden-like massacre decades earlier; THE BEACH AT SUMMERLY, a ravishing summer read from Beatriz Williams that sweeps readers back to a mid-century New England rich with secrets and Cold War intrigue; and I AM HOMELESS IF THIS IS NOT MY HOME, Lorrie Moore’s first novel since A GATE AT THE STAIRS --- a daring, meditative exploration of love and death, passion and grief, and what it means to be haunted by the past, both by history and the human heart.

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