Seventh Heaven

Alice Hoffman's fresh, delightful version of the American Dream is set in the early 1960s in a sleepy Long Island neighbourhood where the most important rule of behaviour is minding your own business, and the existence of evil, if given any credence at all, can be countered by washing the kitchen floor with Lysol. Enter Norah Silk, beautiful, hedonistic, a woman on her own with two small sons and an obvious target for suspicious wives and frustrated husbands. Norah, being something of a magician, turns a potential disaster into a triumph for compassion and good sense. Settling quickly into Hemlock Street, she cures small boys of heartache and softens the harshness of sad marriages. A Mary Poppins story for grown-ups, this sophisticated, funny novel is bound to give pleasure. (Kirkus UK)