The Ice Queen - Hardcover

Hoffman, Alice

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0701178981 ISBN 13: 9780701178987

Publisher: Chatto & Windus, 2005

Synopsis

An electrifying novel about a woman struck by lightning, which brings together, as only Hoffman can, the fabulous and the real, chaos theory and the irrational everyday moment, in a compelling, haunting and sexy novel, with a sharp edge. As in a fairy tale (and the echo in the title is not accidental), the story starts with a little girl who makes a wish one snowy night and ruins her life. Her mother is killed on an icy road. Be careful what you wish for. Later, as a smalltown librarian who knows more than is good for her about ways of death, she lives a quiet life without excitement. One day, standing by her kitchen window, she is struck by lightning. But instead of ending her life, this cataclysmic event sparks it into beginning - if only she knew what she was supposed to do with this second chance. She goes in search of Lazarus Jones, a fellow survivor who was struck dead for forty minutes, but walked away. Perhaps this stranger who has seen death face to face can teach her to live without fear. When she finds him, he is her opposite, a burning man whose breath can boil water and whose touch scorches. As an obsessive love affair begins between them, both are forced to hide their most dangerous secrets - what turned one to ice and the other to fire. The Ice Queen is a haunting story of passion, loss, and the secrets that come to define us, if we're not careful.

About this title

Review:

"Alice Hoffman is erotic and romantic, funny and clever and humane" (The Times)

"Alice Hoffman is a daring and able writer; she plots conjunctions of mundane and magical events with such ease that the reader never doubts her word" (New Yorker)

"Like her contemporaries, Carol Shields and Alice Munro, Hoffman has an acute eye for detail - Hoffman writes with heartbreaking clarity" (The Times)

"[Hoffman] does it beautifully, composing a lyrical tale that does not waster a single word, a shamelessly heart-breaking story that will leave barely a dry eye in the house" (Lesley McDowell Independent on Sunday)

"Enchanting" (Sunday Times)

From the Publisher:

Alice Hoffman at her electrifying best, in a dark, compelling and magical novel about grief, addictive passion and second chances.

About this edition

• Publisher: Chatto & Windus
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0701178981
• ISBN 13: 9780701178987
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 224