I have always been an Alice Hoffman fan and have been anxiously awaiting this new release. Her earlier works were my favorites, whimsical and plaintive on so many levels. Her writing has definitely evolved and The Dovekeepers was a huge success.
In this new novel, Hoffman finds inspiration for her particular brand of magical realism in the Caribbean island of St. Thomas and the personal history of a nonfictional woman named Rachel Pomié, who lived on the colony in the 19th century.
Rachel begins the story as the headstrong daughter of a French merchant, whose Jewish ancestors came to the New World in pursuit of religious freedom and found refuge under the protection of the King of Denmark, a champion of civil rights who also outlawed slavery on the island.
| THE MARRIAGE OF OPPOSITES by Alice Hoffman | |
Growing up on idyllic St. Thomas in the early 1800s, Rachel dreams of life in faraway Paris. She is married off to a widower with three children. When her husband dies suddenly and his handsome, much younger nephew, Frédérick, arrives from France to save the family business, all hell breaks loose. Hoffman turns to actual historical figures, namely Rachel Petit Pizarro and her son, the Impressionist artist Camille Pisarro to tell this wonderful tale. |
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