Faithful: A Novel (Hardcover)

Faithful: A Novel By Alice Hoffman Cover Image

Faithful: A Novel (Hardcover)

$26.00


Special Order—Subject to Availability

November 2016 Indie Next List


“Faithful is compulsively readable and includes all of the traits we have come to love and expect from an Alice Hoffman novel. It is a coming-of-age tale of the emotional journey of a girl overcome with heartbreak after a tragic accident, who is now attempting to redefine herself. It is a hopeful lesson in faith, love, friendship, forgiveness, and opening up to new possibilities. A friendly warning: Expect a craving for Chinese food and a desire to adopt a rescue dog after reading.”
— Tarah Jennings (W), Mitzi's Books, Rapid City, SD

Top Ten


“After decades of working in bookstores, I am-perhaps not suprisingly-immune to picking up a new book by a prolific author. I tend to assume, as with rock songwriters, that an author's best work is always behind them. If that is true, then I have seriously missed out by not reading Hoffman before. I pretty much inhaled this book. Faithful, although destined for the adult fiction section, reads like a smart young adult novel and would be a perfect pick for a mother-daughter book club. Real teens, real young adults, and real parents-and one life-shattering mistake.”
— Carla Bayha, Literati Bookstore, Ann Arbor, MI

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Marriage of Opposites and The Dovekeepers comes a soul-searching story about a young woman struggling to redefine herself and the power of love, family, and fate.

Growing up on Long Island, Shelby Richmond is an ordinary girl until one night an extraordinary tragedy changes her fate. Her best friend’s future is destroyed in an accident, while Shelby walks away with the burden of guilt.

What happens when a life is turned inside out? When love is something so distant it may as well be a star in the sky? Faithful is the story of a survivor, filled with emotion—from dark suffering to true happiness—a moving portrait of a young woman finding her way in the modern world. A fan of Chinese food, dogs, bookstores, and men she should stay away from, Shelby has to fight her way back to her own future. In New York City she finds a circle of lost and found souls—including an angel who’s been watching over her ever since that fateful icy night.

Here is a character you will fall in love with, so believable and real and endearing, that she captures both the ache of loneliness and the joy of finding yourself at last. For anyone who’s ever been a hurt teenager, for every mother of a daughter who has lost her way, Faithful is a roadmap.

Alice Hoffman’s “trademark alchemy” (USA TODAY) and her ability to write about the “delicate balance between the everyday world and the extraordinary” (WBUR) make this an unforgettable story. With beautifully crafted prose, Alice Hoffman spins hope from heartbreak in this profoundly moving novel.
Alice Hoffman is the author of more than thirty works of fiction, including Magic LessonsThe World That We KnewPractical MagicThe Rules of Magic, the Oprah’s Book Club selection Here on EarthThe Red GardenThe DovekeepersThe Museum of Extraordinary ThingsThe Marriage of Opposites, and Faithful. She lives near Boston.
Product Details ISBN: 9781476799209
ISBN-10: 1476799202
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Publication Date: November 1st, 2016
Pages: 272
Language: English
PRAISE FOR FAITHFUL BY ALICE HOFFMAN

"Poignant...[Shelby's] snarky charm and well-hidden kindness draw you in....A deep truth this story reveals is that finding closure after great loss is not a one-time deal; life grows around such wounds in small increments over time."
USA Today

“An emotionally resonant portrait of loss and rebirth.”
People (Book of the Week select)

“Engaging and vivid...a satisfying, well-earned close.”
The Boston Globe

"This is a luminous book that sucks you in...Allow plenty of time if you pick up Hoffman’s latest; you might not be able to put it back down."
Seattle Times

"Deeply moving...[Hoffman] takes us deep into the human heart, and in a relatable story, deftly examines the healing process."
Minneapolis Star Tribune

"Emotionally rewarding."
Houston Chronicle

"Bestselling author Alice Hoffman has done it again with her new novel, Faithful. Hoffman is an amazing storyteller who weaves us into the life of Shelby Richmond, an ordinary girl who becomes a remarkable young woman...There is that unique magic that Hoffman casts in all of her novels...Seriously, this is a novel for anyone who has faith."
Fort Worth Star-Telegram

"This is a beautiful novel of a young woman finding her way after tragedy and keeping it real for the duration."
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

"Faithful is a beautiful novel about surviving and how we can forgive ourselves after the most difficult tragedies."
PopSugar

“Popular and prolific Hoffman brings her lavish inventiveness and deep empathy to the story of a young woman afflicted with survivor’s guilt who finds kindred spirits in New York City, along with a watchful angel.”
Booklist

"Faithful will take you on an emotional ride."
Bustle

“Hoffman being heartbreaking and magical.”
Library Journal

“Bittersweet and luminous, Hoffman's novel is a testament to the quiet power of small gestures and gradual redemption.”
Shelf Awareness

“A novel full of people—flawed, scarred, scared—discovering how to punish themselves less and connect with others more.”
Kirkus Reviews

Faithful is a poignant novel about grief, guilt, and recovery. Alice Hoffman is a wonderful storyteller.”
—Tom Perrotta, New York Times bestselling author of Election, Little Children, and The Leftovers 

Alice Hoffman is a spectacular writer—generous and compassionate, elegant and fierce—and FAITHFUL is both a sweeping page-turner and a gorgeous, heartbreaking exploration of family, faith, and love. This novel is as captivating as it is impossible to put down. I loved it."
—Molly Antopol, critically acclaimed author of The UnAmericans