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The Red Garden

By: Alice Hoffman
Narrated by: Nancy Travis
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Publisher's summary

The Red Garden introduces us to the luminous and haunting world of Blackwell, Massachusetts. Hoffman offers a transforming glimpse of small-town America, presenting us with some three hundred years of passion, dark secrets, loyalty, and redemption in a web of tales.

From the town’s founder, a brave young woman from England who has no fear of blizzards or bears, to the young man who runs away to New York City, the characters in The Red Garden are extraordinary and vivid: a young wounded Civil War soldier who is saved by a neighbor, a woman who meets a fiercely human historical character, a poet who falls in love with a blind man, a mysterious traveler who comes to town in the year when summer never arrives. At the center of everyone’s life is a garden where only red plants can grow, and where the truth can be found by those who dare to look. The Red Garden is as unforgettable as it is moving.

©2011 Alice Hoffman (P)2010 Random House Audio
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Editorial reviews

The Red Garden by Alice Hoffman, read by Nancy Travis, evokes comparisons to Thornton Wilder’s classic Our Town. The book meanders through time, allowing the lives and deaths of the inhabitants of Blackwell, Massachusetts, to tell the story of time’s passage, of loves requited, of the inexplicable in life, and of the stamina of good, plain folk.

Nancy Travis performs the chapters - each one denoting a forward progression in time - in a straightforward manner. Deftly moving between Hoffman’s storytelling of fact and fantasy, Travis has the opportunity to be a narrator, an actor, and a teller of ghostly tales. Whether characterizing the first inklings of lovesick yearning from a teen-aged girl in the 18th century or portraying a young widow, two centuries later, who has lost her Blackwell childhood sweetheart across the world in Vietnam, Travis deftly moves from character to character, time period to time period.

Nature also becomes a character in The Red Garden, and Travis’ reading imbues palpable emotion as generation after generation of Blackwell residents brave the roiling Eel River and venture recklessly into the bear-infested woods of Hightop Mountain. They never learn as we, the listeners, do. Early in the story there is the depiction of the young stranger with an oddly strong sense of purpose who strays in the area long enough to plant some apple trees and bewitch the local women. The apple orchard, then, becomes the scene of trysts and confrontations for centuries onward. Finally, there is the Red Garden itself, so named because, decade after decade, anything planted within its fenced confines comes up red. There’s a story there, buried centuries ago.

In The Red Garden the life of a small town lived over hundreds of years by long-time residents, itinerant wanderers, and that mysterious fisherman’s wife will captivate all who move towards that ultimate audio book commitment: “Add to Cart”. --Carole Chouinard

Critic reviews

"In gloriously sensuous, suspenseful, mystical, tragic, and redemptive episodes, Hoffman subtly alters her language, from an almost biblical voice to increasingly nuanced and intricate prose reflecting the burgeoning social and psychological complexities her passionate and searching characters face in an ever-changing world." (Booklist)

"Hoffman has done it again, crafting a poignant, compelling collection of fairy tales suffused with pathos and brightened by flashes of magic. Her fans, as well as those of magical realism in general, will be enchanted." (Library Journal)

"Fans of Hoffman’s brand of mystical whimsy will find this paean to New England one of her most satisfying." (Kirkus Review)

What listeners say about The Red Garden

Average customer ratings
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  • Overall
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    5 out of 5 stars

This was a beautifully written and gorgeous book..

....to read. It was filled with lush thoughts of gardens and rivers, mountains, bears, and flowers. You could easily imagine what was being portrayed by the way Alice Hoffman places her words in sentences. It was a book of short stories that all intertwined like a geneology project. From the 1600's to the present time.....the people in this book felt like your own family by the time you were done. There was a bit of the supernatural in it.....which helped the book to be a bit intriguing. I enjoyed every minute of this book....I LOVE Alice Hoffman!!!....

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7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Loved it

Wonderful listen. Narrater great. Good stories building to a fine finish. I would definitely recommend.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Interesting book

When you first start listening, there can be some confusion as to why the story changes with each chapter. Each chapter it the next timeline in history that tells the tale of the red garden dating back to the beginning and a chronological order of the people’s lives that are intertwined with the history. This is not just one story all the way through the book. It’s one every chapter. Which makes this book an interesting study for book clubs. By the end you can loop together the tales into a thread. Easy listen or read.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

History of a Town

Alice Hoffman is amazing!
This book felt like a series. In fact, I often thought as I read it that I would love to see it fattened and become a television series or at least a book series.

Each time period and the person it represented left me wanting more. From the very first character I wanted more than the lifespan that was given. What happened next to Hallie Brady, for example, when she left town?

I was angry, at first, when I borrowed the book from the library for my Kindle that it didn't have text-to-speech enabled. Even so I was drawn into the story enough that I kept reading, even past my eyestrain. But by the middle of the book I started feeling like this would be a book to own. I already want to read it again. I bought the Audible version and a used copy from Amazon. I want to go back to Blackwell, soon. I loved Nancy Travis's interpretation of the various characters. Way better than my text-to-speech voice!

I look forward to reading and listening to this again in the future.

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4 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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I wanted the pieces to fit together

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

No. I liked the characters but wanted more connection between the generations of the townspeople. It felt flat for me. You would get into a time and its characters and then they were not mentioned again or if they were it was brief.

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

I liked the aspect of the generations that lived in a town. The uniqueness of the town, such as the eel river. The least interesting was the lack of connection between the chapters.

Did Nancy Travis do a good job differentiating all the characters? How?

It was allright, not outstanding.

Was The Red Garden worth the listening time?

I wouldn't listen to it again.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Loved it

It was a great book, I hope there will be more in the series. The narrator is great!!

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Classic Alice Hoffman

This book reflects the qualities that makes Hoffman one of my favorite authors. It has nuances of Blackbird House which marks the unique signature of Hoffman's writing. The characters are strong, and insightful, with human frailties that make them both unique and relatable. The worlds she creates are as if the stories are told by the form of a mountain with omnipresent qualities that watches our worlds come and go with the passage of time. She incorporates the everyday with a subtle hint of the mistical that opens ones heart to the wonders and unknown possibilities of the world around us.

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    4 out of 5 stars
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A good read, very entertaining, true Hoffman prose

Stories artfully tied together by the history of a small town. Mystical/realistic trademark blended beautifully.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Not up to snuff for Hoffman fans

Didn’t engage me much at all, sorry to say. All of the women characters were the same—aloof, capable, beautiful, uncaring of how others perceived her (which was far more important 160 years ago)... just wasn’t very interesting to me.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

Interesting

The story, as a whole, was interesting. The way all the family members were tied together from the beginning. It was a bit hard to follow, at times. All the names ran together and it was hard to keep their respective stories straight.

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