Böcker av Alice Hoffman

With a sense of place that is uncanny, and vividly real characters whose lives don't run smooth and whose stories loop together across space and time, this is work from a favourite novelist.

When the women in the Sparrow family reach thirteen, they develop a unique ability. In Stella's case, it is the ability to see a person's probable future. When she foresees a gruesome murder, she tells her charming, feckless father, but it is too late. The murder has already been committed.

For more than a century, the small town of Haddan, Massachusetts, has been divided, as if by a line drawn down the centre of Main Street, separating those born and bred in the 'village' from those who attend the prestigious Haddan School.