Skip to content

Here on Earth
Stock Photo: Cover May Be Different

Here on Earth Paperback - 1998

by Alice Hoffman

The author of such bestselling novels as "Seventh Heaven" and "Practical Magic" creates her most glorious fictional world to date in a spellbinding tale of love and obsession. After nearly 20 years of living in California, March Murray and her daughter Gwen return to March's small Massachusetts hometown. Thrust into the world of her past, March slowly comes to realize the complexity of the choices made by those around her, including Hollis, the boy she loved--now the man she can't seem to stay away from.


Summary

In a review of Hoffman's previous novel, Practical Magic, Booklist wrote, "magic, fantasy, and full-tilt love-at-first-sight have figured in all of Hoffman's sexy, funny, and endearing novels. . . . in Hoffman's universe, all boundaries between inner and outer realms are erased. Fear brings whipping winds, a malevolent spirit causes lilac bushes to achieve monstrous proportions, and love turns the air sweet and golden, melts butter, and makes everyone giddy." In Here on Earth, the darker, obsessive side of love is revealed in all of its power, and with all the havoc it wreaks.

After nearly twenty years of living in California, March Murray, along with her fifteen-year-old daughter, Gwen, returns to the sleepy Massachusetts town where she grew up to attend the funeral of Judith Dale, the beloved housekeeper who raised her. Yet returning to her hometown also brings her back to Hollis, March's former soul mate and lover. March's father had taken the teenaged Hollis, an abandoned child, and the product of a series of detention homes, into his house as a boarder, and treated him like a son. Yet March and Hollis's passionate love was hardly a normal sibling relationship. When Hollis left her after a petty fight, March waited for him three long years, wondering what she had done wrong.

Encountering Hollis again makes March acutely aware of the choices that she has made, and the choices everyone around her has made—including Mrs. Dale, who knew more of love than March could ever have suspected, and her brother Alan, whose tragic history has left him grief-struck, with alcohol as his only solace. Her attraction to Hollis is overwhelming—and March jeopardizes her marriage, her relationship with her daughter and her own happiness in an attempt to reclaim the past.

"Hoffman conveys the mesmerizing lure of a lost love with haunting sensuality," Publishers Weekly, said in an advance review and Library Journal said: "Hoffman takes great care here to examine the many facets of love and relationships, turning them like a prism to reflect on March and Hollis."

With Here on Earth , Alice Hoffman achieves once again the "iridescent prose, taut narrative suspense and alluring atmosphere" that The Boston Globe cites as her hallmark. Erotic, disturbing and compelling, this is without a doubt Alice Hoffman's most unforgettable novel.

From the publisher

A seductive and mesmerizing story of obsessive love from the New York Times bestselling author of The Rules of Magic. After nineteen years in California, March Murray returns to the small Massachusetts town where she grew up. For all this time, March has been avoiding her own troubled history, but when she encounters Hollis--the boy she loved so desperately, the man who has never forgotten her--the past collides with the present as their reckless love is reignited. This dark romantic tale asks whether it is possible to survive a love that consumes you completely. The answers March Murray discovers are both heartbreaking and wise, as complex as they are devastating--for in heaven and in our dreams, love is simple and glorious. But it is something altogether different here on earth...

First line

TONIGHT, THE HAY IN THE FIELDS IS already brittle with frost, especially to the west of Fox Hill, where the pastures shine like stars.

Details

  • Title Here on Earth
  • Author Alice Hoffman
  • Binding Paperback
  • Edition [ Edition: Repri
  • Pages 304
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher Berkley Books, E Rutherford, New Jersey, U.S.A.
  • Date 1998-03-01
  • ISBN 9780425167311 / 0425167313
  • Weight 0.92 lbs (0.42 kg)
  • Dimensions 9.04 x 6.02 x 0.81 in (22.96 x 15.29 x 2.06 cm)
  • Ages 18 to UP years
  • Grade levels 13 - UP
  • Themes
    • Cultural Region: New England
    • Cultural Region: Northeast U.S.
    • Demographic Orientation: Small Town
    • Geographic Orientation: Massachusetts
    • Sex & Gender: Feminine
    • Topical: Family
  • Library of Congress subjects Love stories, Massachusetts
  • Library of Congress Catalog Number 97005382
  • Dewey Decimal Code FIC

About the author

Alice Hoffman is the author of more than thirty works of fiction, including The Rules of Magic, Practical Magic, The Marriage of Opposites, The Red Garden, the Oprah's Book Club selection Here on Earth, The Museum of Extraordinary Things, and The Dovekeepers. She lives near Boston.
Back to Top

More Copies for Sale

Here on Earth (Oprah's Book Club)
Stock Photo: Cover May Be Different

Here on Earth (Oprah's Book Club)

by Alice Hoffman

  • Used
Condition
Used - Very Good
ISBN 13
9780425167311
ISBN 10
0425167313
Quantity Available
1
Seller
Waltham, Massachusetts, United States
Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 5 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
Item Price
$1.00
$3.00 shipping to USA

Show Details

Description:
Berkley. Used - Very Good. . . All orders guaranteed and ship within 24 hours. Your purchase supports More Than Words, a nonprofit job training program for youth, empowering youth to take charge of their lives by taking charge of a business.
Item Price
$1.00
$3.00 shipping to USA
Here on Earth (Oprah's Book Club)
Stock Photo: Cover May Be Different

Here on Earth (Oprah's Book Club)

by Alice Hoffman

  • Used
Condition
Used - Good
ISBN 13
9780425167311
ISBN 10
0425167313
Quantity Available
1
Seller
Waltham, Massachusetts, United States
Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 5 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
Item Price
$1.00
$3.00 shipping to USA

Show Details

Description:
Berkley. Used - Good. . . All orders guaranteed and ship within 24 hours. Your purchase supports More Than Words, a nonprofit job training program for youth, empowering youth to take charge of their lives by taking charge of a business.
Item Price
$1.00
$3.00 shipping to USA
HERE ON EARTH (OPRAH'S BOOK CLUB
Stock Photo: Cover May Be Different

HERE ON EARTH (OPRAH'S BOOK CLUB

by Hoffman, Alice

  • Used
Condition
UsedGood
ISBN 13
9780425167311
ISBN 10
0425167313
Quantity Available
2
Seller
Imperial, Missouri, United States
Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 5 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
Item Price
$4.74
FREE shipping to USA

Show Details

Description:
UsedGood. The item shows wear from consistent use, but it remains in good condition and works perfectly. All pages and cover are intact (including the dust cover, if applicable). Spine may show signs of wear. Pages may include limited notes and highlighting. May NOT include discs, access code or other supplemental materials.
Item Price
$4.74
FREE shipping to USA
Here on Earth (Oprah's Book Club)
Stock Photo: Cover May Be Different

Here on Earth (Oprah's Book Club)

by Hoffman, Alice

  • Used
  • good
  • Paperback
Condition
Used - Good
Binding
Paperback
ISBN 13
9780425167311
ISBN 10
0425167313
Quantity Available
4
Seller
Memphis, Tennessee, United States
Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 5 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
Item Price
$5.11
FREE shipping to USA

Show Details

Description:
Berkley, 1998-03-01. Paperback. Good. 6x0x8.
Item Price
$5.11
FREE shipping to USA
Here on Earth (Oprah's Book Club)
Stock Photo: Cover May Be Different

Here on Earth (Oprah's Book Club)

by Hoffman, Alice

  • Used
  • Paperback
Condition
UsedVeryGood
Binding
Paperback
ISBN 13
9780425167311
ISBN 10
0425167313
Quantity Available
1
Seller
Springfield, Virginia, United States
Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 5 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
Item Price
$5.12
FREE shipping to USA

Show Details

Description:
Berkley, 1998-02-28. paperback. UsedVeryGood. 6x0x8. Very Good condition.Crisp pages. Clean cover and pages. Book shows minimal shelf wear. No highlighting/marking. Not Satisfied? Contact us to get a refund.
Item Price
$5.12
FREE shipping to USA
Here on Earth (Oprah's Book Club)
Stock Photo: Cover May Be Different

Here on Earth (Oprah's Book Club)

by Hoffman, Alice

  • Used
  • Paperback
Condition
UsedVeryGood
Binding
Paperback
ISBN 13
9780425167311
ISBN 10
0425167313
Quantity Available
1
Seller
Springfield, Virginia, United States
Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 5 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
Item Price
$5.12
FREE shipping to USA

Show Details

Description:
Berkley, 1998-03-01. paperback. UsedVeryGood. 6x0x8. Very Good condition.Crisp pages. Clean cover and pages. Book shows minimal shelf wear. No highlighting/marking. Not Satisfied? Contact us to get a refund.
Item Price
$5.12
FREE shipping to USA
Here on Earth (Oprah's Book Club)
Stock Photo: Cover May Be Different

Here on Earth (Oprah's Book Club)

by Hoffman, Alice

  • Used
  • Paperback
Condition
UsedVeryGood
Binding
Paperback
ISBN 13
9780425167311
ISBN 10
0425167313
Quantity Available
1
Seller
Springfield, Virginia, United States
Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 5 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
Item Price
$5.12
FREE shipping to USA

Show Details

Description:
Berkley, 1998-03-01. paperback. UsedVeryGood. 6x0x8. Very Good condition.Crisp pages. Clean cover and pages. Book shows minimal shelf wear. No highlighting/marking. Not Satisfied? Contact us to get a refund.
Item Price
$5.12
FREE shipping to USA
Here on Earth (Oprah's Book Club)
Stock Photo: Cover May Be Different

Here on Earth (Oprah's Book Club)

by Hoffman, Alice

  • Used
  • Paperback
Condition
UsedGood
Binding
Paperback
ISBN 13
9780425167311
ISBN 10
0425167313
Quantity Available
1
Seller
Springfield, Virginia, United States
Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 5 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
Item Price
$5.12
FREE shipping to USA

Show Details

Description:
Berkley, 1998-02-28. paperback. UsedGood. 6x0x8. Good condition.No marking/highlighting.Cover and pages may show some wear.Not Satisfied? Contact us to get a refund.
Item Price
$5.12
FREE shipping to USA
Here on Earth (Oprah's Book Club)
Stock Photo: Cover May Be Different

Here on Earth (Oprah's Book Club)

by Hoffman, Alice

  • Used
  • Paperback
Condition
UsedGood
Binding
Paperback
ISBN 13
9780425167311
ISBN 10
0425167313
Quantity Available
1
Seller
Springfield, Virginia, United States
Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 5 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
Item Price
$5.12
FREE shipping to USA

Show Details

Description:
Berkley, 1998-03-01. paperback. UsedGood. 6x0x9. Good condition.No marking/highlighting.Cover and pages may show some wear.Not Satisfied? Contact us to get a refund.
Item Price
$5.12
FREE shipping to USA
Here on Earth (Oprah's Book Club)
Stock Photo: Cover May Be Different

Here on Earth (Oprah's Book Club)

by Hoffman, Alice

  • Used
  • good
  • Paperback
Condition
Used - Good
Binding
Paperback
ISBN 13
9780425167311
ISBN 10
0425167313
Quantity Available
6
Seller
Kingwood, Texas, United States
Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 5 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
Item Price
$5.15
FREE shipping to USA

Show Details

Description:
Berkley, 1998-03-01. Paperback. Good. 8x6x0.
Item Price
$5.15
FREE shipping to USA