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Illumination Night
  • Published: 7 June 2002
  • ISBN: 9780099429180
  • Imprint: Vintage
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 208
  • RRP: $25.00

Illumination Night



'Daringly mixing comedy with tragedy, and the quotidian with the fabulous, she has created a narrative that somehow makes myth out of the sticky complexities of contemporary marriage... Hoffman writes so simply about human passions that her characters are branded on to one's memory' - New York Times

Vonny lives on the island of Martha's Vineyard with her husband Andre and son Simon. Their neighbour Elizabeth, a woman in her seventies, falls from an upstairs window and her granddaughter Jody is summoned to nurse her through her convalescence.

The scene is set for a magical story of love and loneliness, of terror and human frailty, of the mystery and grace of ordinary experience. Alice Hoffman's ability to fuse the domestic and the mythic in a narrative of such gentle yet magnetic force confirms her stature as one of the most gifted of American novelists.

  • Published: 7 June 2002
  • ISBN: 9780099429180
  • Imprint: Vintage
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 208
  • RRP: $25.00

About the author

Alice Hoffman

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, Skylight Confessions and most recently The Third Angel. Blackbird House was shortlisted for the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award. She divides her time between Boston and New York City.

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Praise for Illumination Night

Alice Hoffman hits bulls-eyes on the incomprehension between the young and the old, of the magic and pain of ordinary life. She is erotic and romantic, funny and clever and humane

Philip Howard, The Times

A beautiful book. Fresh and dauntless

Toni Morrison

Compelling...Illumination Night is a novel of convincing psychological realism

Marge Piercy

An authentic prose stylist of a high order

Boston Globe

A shimmering, radiant tale

Publishers Weekly