âA luminous, Marquez-esque taleâ (O, The Oprah Magazine) from the New York Times bestselling author of The Museum of Extraordinary Things: a forbidden love story set on a tropical island about the extraordinary woman who gave birth to painter Camille Pissarroâthe Father of Impressionism.
Growing up on idyllic St. Thomas in the early 1800s, Rachel dreams of life in faraway Paris. Rachelâs mother, a pillar of their small refugee community of Jews who escaped the Inquisition, has never forgiven her daughter for being a difficult girl who refuses to live by the rules. Growing up, Rachelâs salvation is their maid Adelleâs belief in her strengths, and her deep, life-long friendship with Jestine, Adelleâs daughter. But Rachelâs life is not her own. She is married off to a widower with three children to save her fatherâs business. When her older husband dies suddenly and his handsome, much younger nephew, FrÊdÊrick, arrives from France to settle the estate, Rachel seizes her own life story, beginning a defiant, passionate love affair that sparks a scandal that affects all of her family, including her favorite son, who will become one of the greatest artists of France.
âA work of artâ (Dallas Morning News), The Marriage of Opposites showcases the beloved, bestselling Alice Hoffman at the height of her considerable powers. âHer lush, seductive prose, and heart-pounding subjectâĻmake this latest skinny-dip in enchanted realismâĻthe Platonic ideal of the beach readâ (Slate.com). Once forgotten to history, the marriage of Rachel and FrÊdÊrick âwill only renew your commitment to Hoffmanâs astonishing storytellingâ (USA TODAY).