Magic Lessons by Alice Hoffman
Summary
Where does the story of the Owens bloodline begin? With Maria Owens, in the 1600s, when she’s abandoned in a snowy field in rural England as a baby. Under the care of Hannah Owens, Maria learns about the “Nameless Arts.” Hannah recognizes that Maria has a gift and she teaches the girl all she knows. It is here that she learns her first important lesson: Always love someone who will love you back.
When Maria is abandoned by the man who has declared his love for her, she follows him to Salem, Massachusetts. Here she invokes the curse that will haunt her family. And it’s here that she learns the rules of magic and the lesson that she will carry with her for the rest of her life. Love is the only thing that matters.
Book Settings: Salem, Boston, and NYC
118 Washington Street: John Hathorne’s house was located here. Maria would often visit the house to speak to John Hathrone. Faith would eventually work in the home.
Boston Latin School: Maria stayed near this school when she first got to Boston.
70 Washington Street: Where the courthouse that Maria was tried in stood.
Maiden Lane: Maria, Faith, Samuel and Abraham all stayed in a house on this street once they moved from Salem.
First Shearith Israel Graveyard, Chatham Square Cemetery: Abraham was buried here.
Coney Island: Known as Rabbit Island or Konijon Island in the novel. Faith and Jack Finney stayed here after Faith escaped from Martha Chase.
Dock Street: Maria and Faith reunited here.
Reviews
"Storytelling is in Hoffman’s bones, and the skill with which she dispenses information and compresses time, so that a year passes in a sentence, so that a tragedy witnessed becomes the propeller for a hundred-page subplot, is (forgive me) bewitching. My current reality feels chaotic and confusing; to have a narrator take my hand and tell me that linden root and yarrow will cure a racing heart, that witches turn silver dull with their touch, is an undiluted pleasure... Hoffman’s book swept me away during a time I most needed it."
—New York Times Book Review
"Vivid and enchanting, with a can’t-miss-it foray into the Salem Witch Trials, Magic Lessons is another sublime entry in an arresting series."
— Esquire
"Calling all Alice Hoffman stans. Along the way, [Magic Lessons] shows us how smart, independent women were treated in the 17th century. Don't miss it."
—theSkimm