The Invisible Hour: A Novel

Alice Hoffman

Aug 2023 · Sold by Simon and Schuster

About this ebook

The latest New York Times bestseller from beloved author Alice Hoffman celebrates the enduring magic of books and is a “wonderful story of love and growth” (Stephen King).

One 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 two hundred 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. 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. She learns that time is more fluid than she can imagine, and that love is stronger than any chains that bind you.

As a girl Mia fell in love with a book. Now as a young woman she falls in love with a brilliant writer as she makes her way back in time. But what if Nathaniel Hawthorne never wrote The Scarlet Letter? And what if Mia Jacob never found it on the day she planned to die?

From “the reigning queen of magical realism” (Kristin Hannah, New York Times bestselling author), this is the story of one woman’s dream. For a little while it came true.

Ratings and reviews

Mia was raised in a harsh commune community with her mother. The leader is her father but not biologically. Through the words of secretly read books, she learns of life outside the walls of the commune. Magically beautiful and harsh at times, Mia has a story to tell-all of it real, all of it alive. A story to read and savor. I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Like most books written by Alice Hoffman, this is well written with multi-dimensional characters. But I found the abrupt chapter shifts (throughout the book) from one person's story to another left me feeling that this novel does not hang together as well as other books I've read by Hoffman.

About the author

Alice Hoffman is the author of more than thirty works of fiction, including The Book of Magic, Magic Lessons, The World That We Knew, Practical Magic, The Rules of Magic (a Reese Witherspoon Book Club Pick), the Oprah’s Book Club Selection Here on Earth, The Red Garden, The Dovekeepers, The Museum of Extraordinary Things, The Marriage of Opposites, and Faithful. She lives near Boston.