Product Description

From one of the most captivating storytellers in American fiction comes a tale of two sisters, Gillian and Sally Owens, brought up by their two elderly guardian aunts in a world of spells and exotica. As the magical charm of their childhood wears away, they escape from this mystical mayhem - one by running away, the other by marrying. Many years go by before strange circumstances thrust them together again, and once more they are in a place that blends the mundane and mysterious, the familiar and fantastic, the normal and the numinous. Three generations of Owens women are brought together in an experience of unexpected insight and revelation, teaching all of them that such perceptions are rare and wonderful and - to be sure - practical.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #15308 in Books
• Published on: 2002-04-04
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 280 pages

New Yorker
‘Alice Hoffman is a daring and able writer; she plots conjunctions of mundane and magical events with such ease that the reader never doubts her word’

Kate Atkinson, Independent
'A great atmospheric storyteller…Her books are a real pleasure – practical magic’

The Times
‘Like her contemporaries, Carol Shields and Alice Munro, Hoffman has an acute eye for detail…Hoffman writes with heartbreaking clarity’

Customer Reviews

Completely different from the movie - beautifully written
The movie version of this story is one of the most fun, exhilerating movies - a favorite in this household. This book bears very little relation to the movie. The only similarities are that the main characters exist as they do in the movie, but they don't live with the aunts and magic is not quite the focus as it was in the movie.

Now, that said ...

This is one of the best books I've had the opportunity to read. Written in the beautiful prose Alice Hoffman is so well known for, it follows the life of Gillian and Sally as they go on their diverse paths. Sally is the stable widow with two girls in tow. She leaves the aunts in New England, leaving her sad life behind, and moves to a Long Island suburb with her two girls where tries to live a normal life. Meanwhile, Gillian is a bad girl who is in and out of relationships and in and out of trouble. She finds the awful, abusive Jimmy and eventually kills him accidentally while enroute to visit her sister. Unsure of what to do, she brings him to her sister's house dead in the passenger seat of the car - she thinks stable Sally would know what to do to keep her out of jail. Sally meets the situation with borderline hysteria at first, then the two decide to bury him in Sally's backyard. Gillian moves in with Sally and her girls and tries to forget the body in the back yard. Sally's boring, stable life changes dramatically while Gillian's naughty life changes to a more stable one. Meanwhile they are haunted by the evil spirit of Jimmy, threatening to destroy the tenuous stability they try to build.

This book is not written in standard chapters - instead it is written in four large sections. Fortunately there are enough scene breaks in each section that you can put it down and read it in separate sittings. The thing is, once you're drawn into the story, you won't want to put it down. You'll want to read this one in a day, in one sitting if you can read fast enough. It is so beautifully written with an edge of suspense and just a tiny touch of magic. It will become a treasure on your bookshelf and one you'll only loan to your most reliable friends. Excellent!

Magical
Before you pick up this book forget the movie adaptation, Sandra Bullock, and Nicole Kidman.
The film is great, but it's been given the Hollywood treatment.
The book is wonderful.
Like most readers, I expected the quirky tale of two witchy sisters and their crazy old witchy Aunts. I didn't expect the amount of character exploration, the wit, the darkness, and the way that the magic is subtly referred to throughout, but not over-stated. I guess that's the meaning of "Practical" Magic though!
It's a really great read, and well worth the money.

fantastic, one to keep and read again...
I accidently watched the film adaptation one evening when there was nothing else on t.v, the film was quite good considering that it had been given the Hollywood treatment so I thought I'd give the book a go, Im so glad I did its one of the best books I have ever read, the author has the ability to make you really visualise the wisteria, roses etc.. and to feel the weather and moods of all the people in the story, some "witchy, magical" books for adults are written in a very childish manner leaving you feeling a little patronised but this one is a big exception !!.

Highly recommend this book its really a feelgood story which is quite different from Hoffmans other tales which are a little on the depressive side to say the least.... 10 out of 10 for this one though..