In the darkest hour of winter, when the starlings had all flown away, Gretel Samuelson fell in love. It happened the way things are never supposed to happen in real life, like a sledgehammer, like a bolt from out of the blue. One minute she was a seventeen year-old senior in high school waiting for a Sicilian pizza to go; the next one she was someone whose whole world had exploded, leaving her adrift in the Milky Way, so far from earth she was walking on stars.

Career
Hoffman's first job was at Doubleday which later publiAlice Hoffmand two of her novels. Alice Hoffman (born March 16 1952) is an American novelist and young-adult and children's writer best known for her 1996 novel Practical Magic which was adapted for a 1998 film of the same name. She graduated from Adelphi University with a Bachelor of Arts degree.

Alice Hoffman (born March 16 1952) is an American novelist and young-adult and children's writer best known for her 1996 novel Practical Magic which was adapted for a 1998 film of the same name.