Skylight Confessions

"In a novel that unfolds like a dream," a New York Times–bestselling author "reminds readers that love and family create the most potent magic of all." —Philadelphia Inquirer

Writing at the height of her powers, Alice Hoffman conjures three generations of a family haunted by love.


Cool, practical, and deliberate, John is dreamy Arlyn's polar opposite. Yet the two are drawn powerfully together even when it is clear they are bound to bring each other grief. Their difficult marriage leads them and their children to a house made of glass in the Connecticut countryside, to the avenues of Manhattan, and to the blue waters of Long Island Sound. Glass breaks, love hurts, and families make their own rules. Ultimately, it falls to their grandson, Will, to solve the emotional puzzle of his family and of his own identity.


"Wholly original and haunting." —Parade

"A novel to be savored." —Baltimore Sun

"Haunting. . . . This isn't just Hoffman's best recent novel; it's one of the best of a distinguished list. . . . Long after the last page is turned, the characters and their stories are impossible to forget." —St. Louis Post-Dispatch 

"Achingly beautiful and filled with heart-wrenchingly real characters: one of Hoffman's best." —Kirkus Reviews, starred review

"Hoffman's shimmering, multigenerational melodrama bewitches with supernatural imagery." —Booklist

"Among the many pleasures of Skylight Confessions is a sense of continuous corner-turning, a chain of surprises" —Boston Globe

"Spellbinding." —More