In my new novel The Story Sisters (Shaye Areheart Books) Elv Story creates an imaginary world to help her deal with a childhood trauma that she keeps secret. Stories help her to deal with reality and with her past. In a way, she cannot live without them.
Each chapter of the novel begins with a piece of what I call Elv's Black Book of Fairy Tales. When added together they complete a psychological puzzle and tell the story of Elv's interior life. She is the sum of these stories' parts, and they are the truth of who she is.
Elv is one of three sisters, but as is true in many fairy tales, each sister has a separate path that she alone must follow. In many ways The Story Sisters is a quest that follows the structure of traditional fairy tales. I grew up in love with fairy tales, stunned by the truths they told. Many of the other stories I read as a child felt false, as if they were talking down to me. I wanted to read stories that were brutal and beautiful and fearless. Fairy tales always trust the reader to look inside the deepest truth about real life. There are monsters as well as heroes, and sometimes, all too often, it's difficult to know which is which.
Set in New York, New Hampshire and Paris, the novel also takes place in an invented fairy tale world. What good are fairy tales? They, above all other stories, explain us to ourselves and give voice to our own inner natures. In telling stories people are able to acknowledge and understand their own pain and humanity. Fairytales make up the inner story of our lives, the blood and bones. They tell of a psychological journey, sometimes through the dark woods, to a place of growth. These stories are the interior map of what happens to Elv Story. Read them and you'll know why the secret world she invents may be more real than the everyday life she leads.
The Story Sisters is a novel about the power of stories and the way in which fiction can often tell the deepest truths. How close is the fairy tale world to our own? For Elv Story, it's closer than her own front door.
Here are six of Elv's fairy tales, which you can also hear read aloud at my website. The rest of the story can be found inside The Story Sisters.
FOLLOW
Once a year there was a knock at the door. Two times, then nothing. No one else heard, only me. Even when I was a baby in my cradle. My mother didn't hear. My father didn't hear. My sisters didn't hear. But the cat looked up.
When I was eleven I opened the door. There she was. A lady wearing a gray coat. She spoke, but I didn't know her language. A big wind had come up and the door slammed shut. When I opened it again, she was gone.
But I knew what she wanted.
Me.
The one word I'd understood was daughter.
I asked my mother to tell me about the day I was born. She couldn't remember. I asked my father. He had no idea. My sisters were too young to understand. When the gray lady next came I asked the same question. I could tell from the look on her face. She knew the answer. She went down to the marsh, where the tall reeds grew, where the river began. I ran to keep up. She slipped into the water, all gray. She waited for me to follow. I didn't think twice. I took off my boots. The water was cold.
I went under fast.
GONE
The witch came to the village at noon. She moved into a cottage in the middle of town, got a fire burning, put up her pot. After that a famine began.
They sent me to her because I was nothing, a cleaning girl, dispensable.
In the afternoon the roads were filled with frogs. By suppertime there was lightning. By early evening the birds all fell out of the trees.
I collected frogs in a jar as I went along. I took the charred wood from a tree hit by lightning and tied the twigs together in my shawl. I took the birds bones and kept them in my pocket.
At the well, I stopped and looked down into the black water. Nothing was reflected back. Only the rising moon.
It was night and the streets were empty. Everyone had locked their doors.
What do you have for me? the witch asked.
I gave her the frogs, the charred wood, the bones. She made a soup and offered me some. All over people the county people were starving. I sat down to dinner with her. When she packed up to leave, I was already at the door.
SWAN
My sister stayed in her room, hiding. She gazed the sky and cried. You would think she'd be happy to be human, but she kept talking about needing her freedom. I had lost sister after sister, was I supposed to lose her too? She stood on the ledge outside the window. She had only one arm; if she started to fall she would dash to pieces on the rocks below.
I was always the one to save everyone. I went out at midnight to gather the reeds, though there were wild dogs and men who thought of murder. I carried sharp needles and sticks. At night I wove the reeds together while my sister cried. When I was done, I threw the cape over her. She changed into a bird and flew away.
I watched until she looked like a cloud. Now she was free. Well so was I. I walked to the city and got a job. I had a talent after all. When people asked if I had a family I didn't mention that once I'd had sisters. I said I took care of myself. I said I liked it that way, and after a while I meant it.
IRON
We only wanted to look at him. We set out the trap in the meadow. It had little metal bars and a gate that slammed shut when footsteps crossed the threshold. People barely believed in him anymore, but we did. We'd seen his shadow.
We caught him the first time out.
We thought it was luck. We thought it was fate. We were proud of ourselves.
There he was, hiding from the sunlight. Crows circled overhead.
He didn't move so we poked him with sticks. We were afraid that if we opened the gate he would run, so we watched him all through the day
Tell us your name, we said. We knew if he did he'd be ours forever.
He said nothing. Perhaps he couldn't speak.
He was growing paler. He looked like moonlight. He was so beautiful we couldn't stop looking at him.
Tell us, we asked, again and again.
He said nothing until he disappeared, curled up like a leaf, gone. But we heard clearly that his name was sorrow.
Exactly what we'd have all the rest of our lives.
SNOW
One year twelve girls went missing. One gone for every month that passed. People in town became used to this. They wondered which beast had done this, and who the next victim would be.
I found a handful of teeth on the ground. My mother said they belonged to a dragon. My father said they had lined the mouth of a wolf. But the teeth were small and white, perfect as pearls. There were twelve all together. I strung them on a chain and wore them around my throat.
That was when people began talking.
There was a town meeting to decide what to do. Everyone said the teeth must be disposed of. They'd bring a curse to me and my village. But I heard someone whisper "No" in what sounded like my voice.
I ran away. The town council came to my house. The questioned my father and my mother, but it was too late. I was on the hillside, planting the teeth in the ground. When it rained, twelve girls would grow. They would point to their murderer before they turned into flowers, each one white as snow.
ROSE
Everything was red, the air, the sun, whatever I looked at. Except for him. I fell in love with someone who was human. I watched him walk through the hills and come back in the evening when his work was through. I saw things no woman would see: that he knew how to cry, that he was alone.
I cast myself at him, like a fool, but he didn't see me. And then one day he noticed I was beautiful and he wanted me. He broke me off and took me with him, in his hands, and I didn't care that I was dying until I actually was.
CONFESSION
The wolf came to me at midnight and stood below my window. He had chased the innocent, defiled the sacred, ran after horses and carriages, caused the snow to turn red with blood. But he had an arrow in his side. He was the one bleeding now.
I told him it would hurt, and to shut his eyes. I took out the arrow, cleaned the wound, gave him supper. People in the village said he devoured me then and left only my boots in the snow. They said it would teach the other girls a lesson, and maybe it did. From where I lived in the woods I could hear them calling at night. I wonder what lesson they'd learned.
I just finished reading The Story Sisters. I cried and cried. Something about your books makes me want to be a part of them. I never want them to end. I'm hungry for more. I keep looking for one of yours that I haven't read yet. What's next? Thanks for keeping me enthralled, entertained and much more.
Just read The Story Sisters on my kindle and I LOVED IT. This isn't a surprise, since I've enjoyed all of your works that I've read (and I just recommended you to a friend last night) but I wanted to let you know I thought it was fantastic. I look forward to your new works and I'm never disappointed.
Alice,Your Back!!!!!I just finished The Story Sisters,I loved it!!!!!!!It reminds me of your older work,TurtleMoon etc....I love how theres a little magic ,a little mother earth laced into your storys.Ive missed that,I will be waiting for the next one!!!I never part with your books,Ive read them the way some read the twilight books.My daughters,and my sister are fans as well.thank you alice for sharing your gift..
This is my first Alice Hoffman book. I picked it up last night before bed and read until I couldn't keep my eyes open any longer - this book is indeed luminous, very addictive, and gorgeous. Once I've finished it (most likely today) I can't wait to check out the rest of Ms. Hoffman's books. What a wonderful discovery!
I enjoy your work and am putting this book on my 'to-read' list.
By odd coincidence of me finding your blog this very day, I happen to be embroidering a quote of yours onto my new library book bag.
My daughter, Skyla, and I always come to see you at the Book Revue, but we couldn't last month because she had the flu (known here as the Plainview Plague). We read all your books and love them all. I just finished reading a book I think you would enjoy because it has the same "feeling" as a lot of your books. The title is The Thirteenth Tale and the author is Diane Setterfield. Hope to see you soon at the Book Revue. Skyla wanted me to tell you that she's starting Adelphi in the fall.
I was just letting you know Ms. Hoffman I loved the story of the Story Sisters. My maiden name was Storey and my oldest sister is Elizabeth, and my middle sisters name is Meg and she loves books. Your book really freaked them out with the names, but the book was excellent as are all your books which I own. Thanks again, Sue Storey McClellan
Alice,
I've ben a big fan since I met you at the age of 16! I've read almost all of your books but this one touched me more than I can say. I finished it yesterday which was a beautiful sunny day down where we keep the boat and I couldn't stop crying. I never want any of your books to end which is probably the best of compliments. Keep on writing and bringing such joy to your readers.
I just want to say simply this: thank you for your work, your beautiful worlds, your pain, your love, your loss within each story.
Simply put: thank you.
Ms. Hoffman,
I love your books.The way you write is pure magic and makes me believe in things I had forgotten and things I used to believe in. I just finished The Story Sisters and was so very moved and so very unable to drag myself away from the stories and the story! Such tragedy and beauty which normally escapes all human attempts to pin it down and name it flows from your words. You are an amazing writer and I am so blessed and thrilled to read your works. You have brought magic back into my life and reminded me of things I buried in the backyard of my childhood and for that there is not enough words of thanks!! You rock!!
I just finished The Story Sisters. What incredibly beautiful writing! I did find one error though. On page 78 the character of Justin Levy is called Jason Levy. And yes, I would make an excellent proofreader. Does anybody need one?
Alice your books are so beautiful and touching, I just feel wrought with emotion after reading them. I am a writer too, from London! I have an agent and in talks with big publishing houses in London at the moment. You can check out my latest novel "MADAME BOUNCE" on my blog at www.anna-bond.co.uk - my novel is about an overweight girl who discovers the secret world of Burlesque and through it also discovers that big can be beautiful!
Anna xxxxxxx
Alice,
I just wanted to say how much I love your books, The Story Sisters and The Third Angel being two of my favorites. My mother and grandmother both read many of your books and passed them on to me, my aunt, and my cousin. We have a tradition of signing our names and the date in books we've finished, and I've often opened one of yours to find five or six signatures. Your characters feel like people I know, and I find myself wishing I could see them and paint them (I'm an art student). I could go on and on, but I won't. I adore your stories, and just wanted to thank you for them.
-Madeline
Alice, your work with "The Story Sisters," is disarming, mesmerizing and powerful. And for once, I am at a loss for words. Truly. Except to say POWERFUL, once again. I am new to your work, but I'll be on Amazon, ordering all the rest when I complete this post.
I have a habit--one I started in high school-- that once I found an author that I loved with one book, I had to read them all. So Steinbeck, Drieser and Tennesee Williams were gobbled up at a fast clip. It's been a long time, but it's still my habit....and now you are in that spotlight. I'll get back to you once I've read them all.
And believe me, I may stay awake much of tonight, knowing my order will be shipped in days.
Thank you for fine literature. It's been the PUREST pleasure of my life.
Linda Spear
lmspear80@aol.com
Ms. Hoffman,
I have been in love with your prose for years. Every book you write is more magical than the last. Though my favorite is "Practical Magic," I absolutely loved "The story Sisters!"
I recently discovered you. I was looking for something substantial to read. Even during this hot summer, I didn’t want a slick beach book. I wanted and experience, transcendence. I began with The Third Angel. I’d bought it a while ago, but it somehow ended up on the bookshelf (don’t ask me why, but it’s not good when my books wind up there). It was exactly what I wanted. I was floating as I read it, no longer in the room. It was as if I’d been invited to participate in the narrative, not as a central character, but as someone looking on – but from the inside instead of the outside. I then read Incantation, Blackbird House and The Story Sisters in rapid succession. I experienced the same familiar strangeness of being in an atmosphere that seemed to crossover from this world to the beyond and back again. Many themes repeated throughout the stories: the fragility of relationships, the strength of love, the brutality of betrayal, and the myriad consequences of mistreatment. There were familiar descriptions that carried throughout the stories that make them cohesive despite their different characters and tales: the color of light, the color of tears, secrets, trees, and the many, many birds.
Thank you Kate for your lovely comments about my work.
best, Alice
this book was good bye!!!!!
i loved your book, "green angel." i just finished reading it! i loved your style of write! it's just wonderful! i hope you cotninue the series! :D
Green angel is the best book! i havent finished it yet but im already sucked in. Your the BEST writer ever! could you give me some advice for my report please its on green angel thanks so much
im sami and this is my first alice hoffmam book. i absoulutly looovveee the book, i think it is so fasinating what you can do with your writing. im in seventh grade at lakeside jr high. i would love to read more of your books because they look inhteresting, and i have already fallen in love with one and one of the movies based on your book aquamarine!!my best friend jazmine and i are looking at maybe getting all your books and reading them...hope i get to...bye!
I read Indigo about one month ago. It is one of my favorite books ever! I love how you write so fancy, and poetic. Right now I am reading "True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle." I love how you do somthing diffrent. You put a little, proper girl on an all guys ship. Please, keep writing storys. Your great at it!