ANGELS, herons, a ghost and a down-at-heel hotel anchor Alice Hoffman's examination of human vulnerability, which she tells through the lives of three different women.
Ms Hoffman is renowned for her taste for folk tales and the lyricism of her fiction. Her 20th novel is told retrospectively in three parts over nearly half a century. It starts in London in 1999 when Madeline Heller, a self-absorbed lawyer, arrives from New York for her sister Allie's marriage. Madeline knows she should resist the attraction she feels for Paul, Allie's fiance, yet the envy she feels for her sibling's "perfect" life leads her back into the role of "bad little sister who couldn't follow ...