BOOKFINDS

The Third Angel

Alice Hoffman breaks my heart…and builds it back together with her beautiful words and images. Her most recent release, THE THIRD ANGEL, is a breathtaking work and one that can not be ignored. If you have never read Hoffman’s work, start here! Here is a teaser from Ms. Hoffman’s blog.
I heard something at my window. I thought it was snow falling, or birds calling, or branches hitting against the glass. I had been betrayed by someone I loved. Because of that I was sick of human race. All I could think of was how people went behind your back, lied to you, gave you gifts that looked like gold but were made of straw.

I heard it again at my window. I knew someone wanted to come in. I wondered if I had lost my soul, if someone or something had now been sent to collect it. I had most certainly lost something in being betrayed. I couldn’t find it again because I didn’t know what it was.

I thought I heard someone say my name even though the window was closed. Not the name I went by now, but my childhood nickname, a name I didn’t use anymore. I looked out and saw a man. It was cold. The sky was filled with stars. I had one thing left from the person who had betrayed me. A black coat. When I thought of him I thought of that coat and how he looked in it. Now I grabbed it from the closet and brought it outside. The man in the snow was waiting for someone to save him, so I did. I helped him on with the coat.

When he walked away I thanked him for his gift. Now when I thought of that coat I wouldn’t remember my betrayer. Instead I’d think of the man in the snow and the way he came to save me.

Book Description:

This story follows three women in love with the wrong men. Headstrong Madeline Heller finds herself hopelessly attracted to her sister’s fiancé…Frieda Lewis, a doctor’s daughter who has run off to London, becomes the muse of an ill-fated rock star… and beautiful, reckless Bryn Evans is set to marry an Englishman while she’s secretly obsessed with her ex-husband, a dangerous and love-besotted New Yorker. At the heart of the novel is Lucy Green, who blames herself for a tragic accident she witnessed at the age of twelve in the same London hotel where the others have found themselves. Lucy has spent four decades searching out the Third Angel, the angel on Earth who will renew her faith.

Evoking the worlds of Notting Hill, Kings Road, and Kensington while moving back and forth in time from the 90s, to the 60s, and then to the 50s, The Third Angel charts the unique, alchemical nature of love.