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The Witches of Cambridge: A Novel by Alice Hoffman

from $11.60
Hardcover:

AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

A READ WITH JENNA BOOK CLUB PICK

The brand-new series from the bestselling author of Practical Magic, following two brilliant young women in 1950s Cambridge, Massachusetts, as they become immersed in a mysterious secret group of witches at Radcliffe known as the Lilith Society.

Once upon a time, women were drowned in the river and the only witnesses were the crows in the trees. The Puritans blamed Eve for the sins of the world. That was when we began to meet in the name of Lilith, Adam's first wife—banished for refusing to do as she was told.

We Fly Together…

By the 1950s, Cambridge, Massachusetts feels far removed from the legendary witch trials that marked its early days as a colony. Ava, a bright young woman from a small town in Maine, arrives for her first year at Radcliffe College. There, she meets Lauren, her opposite in every way—the wild and brazen daughter of a wealthy and well-established Cambridge family. But the two have more in common than they think. Both are recruited by the Lilith Society, a secret organization of witches at Radcliffe dating back to colonial times. As they learn more about their legacy, Ava and Lauren form a close bond that is put to the test as they learn to navigate their new power, friendship, and love.

While Radcliffe seems like a safe haven, the shadow of McCarthyism looms large, an ever-present threat to the flourishing creative and intellectual life in Cambridge. And as girls from the Lilith Society begin to go missing, Ava and Lauren realize the witch trials of the past may not be as deeply buried as they once believed.

AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

A READ WITH JENNA BOOK CLUB PICK

The brand-new series from the bestselling author of Practical Magic, following two brilliant young women in 1950s Cambridge, Massachusetts, as they become immersed in a mysterious secret group of witches at Radcliffe known as the Lilith Society.

Once upon a time, women were drowned in the river and the only witnesses were the crows in the trees. The Puritans blamed Eve for the sins of the world. That was when we began to meet in the name of Lilith, Adam's first wife—banished for refusing to do as she was told.

We Fly Together…

By the 1950s, Cambridge, Massachusetts feels far removed from the legendary witch trials that marked its early days as a colony. Ava, a bright young woman from a small town in Maine, arrives for her first year at Radcliffe College. There, she meets Lauren, her opposite in every way—the wild and brazen daughter of a wealthy and well-established Cambridge family. But the two have more in common than they think. Both are recruited by the Lilith Society, a secret organization of witches at Radcliffe dating back to colonial times. As they learn more about their legacy, Ava and Lauren form a close bond that is put to the test as they learn to navigate their new power, friendship, and love.

While Radcliffe seems like a safe haven, the shadow of McCarthyism looms large, an ever-present threat to the flourishing creative and intellectual life in Cambridge. And as girls from the Lilith Society begin to go missing, Ava and Lauren realize the witch trials of the past may not be as deeply buried as they once believed.

  • Publisher: Scribner

    Title: The Witches of Cambridge: A Novel

    Author: Alice Hoffman

    On Sale Date: September 8, 2026

    ISBN 13: 978-1-6680-7464-0

    ISBN 10: 1-6680-7464-8

    Format: Hardcover

    Retail Price: $29.00

    Related Genres: Fiction – Literary; Fiction – Occult; Fiction – Historical

    Page Count: 416

    Dimensions: 9.0 x 6.0 x 1.1 in

    Weight: 1 lb

  • Alice Hoffman has spent more than three decades proving that magic and hard history can live on the same page. Born in New York City and educated at Adelphi University and Stanford, she has published more than thirty novels, most famously Practical Magic, whose 1998 film adaptation turned her Owens sisters into a generation's shorthand for witchy sisterhood. She returned to that world in Magic Lessons and built entirely new ones in books like The Dovekeepers and The World That We Knew. Her own history runs through her fiction in unexpected ways: after being treated for breast cancer at Mount Auburn Hospital in Cambridge, Massachusetts, she helped establish the hospital's Hoffman Breast Center—the same Cambridge whose 1950s Radcliffe campus she now reimagines as home to a centuries-old society of witches in The Witches of Cambridge. She lives in the Boston area.

  • Critics and fellow bestselling authors are calling it spellbinding, bewitching, and enticing:

    • "Utterly spellbinding." — Leigh Bardugo, #1 New York Times bestselling author

    • "[A] sagely bewitching immersion in New England history, magic, misogyny, and resistance." — Booklist, Starred Review

    • "Hoffman again draws on lore and a strong sense of place to root her tale of magic, feminism, and sisterly love." — Kirkus

    • "Enticing… Hoffman proves she's still capable of magic." — Publishers Weekly

This book is for you if

  • You want Alice Hoffman's next witchy saga, this time trading Practical Magic's present-day Massachusetts for 1950s Radcliffe College and a secret society of witches.

  • You're drawn to historical fiction where real fear—McCarthyism, colonial witch trials—sits right alongside real magic.

  • You love stories built on an unlikely friendship: a small-town Maine girl and a brazen Cambridge heiress, bound together by a legacy neither expected.

  • You want a book club pick with staying power—an instant New York Times bestseller and a Read with Jenna selection.

  • You're here for the missing-girls mystery at the center of it, and want to find out whether the witch trials of the past are ever really over.

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