Invisible Hour: A Novel

The latest New York Times best seller from beloved author Alice Hoffman celebrates the enduring magic of books and is a "wonderful story of love and growth" (Stephen King). Through a journey of heartbreak, love, and time, Mia must abandon the rules she was raised with at the Community, an oppressive cult in western Massachusetts where contact with the outside world is forbidden. As she does, she realizes that reading can transport you to other worlds or bring them to you, and that readers and writers affect one another in mysterious ways.

Mia Jacob, on a day when she can no longer see a way to survive, finds that the power of words saves her. The Scarlet Letter, written almost two hundred years earlier, seems to tell the story of Mia's mother, Ivy, and their life inside the Community. Mia is left wondering how Nathaniel Hawthorne could have so perfectly captured the pain and loss that she carries inside her.

As a girl, Mia fell in love with a book. Now, as a young woman, she falls in love with a brilliant writer as she makes her way back in time. But what if Nathaniel Hawthorne never wrote The Scarlet Letter? And what if Mia Jacob never found it on the day she planned to die?

From "the reigning queen of magical realism" (Kristin Hannah, New York Times bestselling author), this is the story of one woman's dream. For a little while, it came true. Mia learns that time is more fluid than she can imagine, and that love is stronger than any chains that bind her. She must navigate the intricate relationships between readers, writers, and the magic that lies within the pages of a book.

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