A Red Heart of Memories

by Nina Kiriki Hoffman

Overview

Matilda "Matt" Black possesses the unique ability to speak with inanimate objects and witness the dreams of other people. Alone, yet never lonely, she’s now found a kindred spirit in Edmund Reynolds—a wandering witch of a spiritual quest to help those in need.
 
Together, these two special people who live outside normal reality will embark on an odyssey of the imagination. They will look into the darkest depths of the past. And they will encounter things both wonderful and terrifying.
 
“A Red Heart of Memories is full of beautiful, impossible magic. Hoffman has a unique talkent for manking prose soar.”—SF Site
 
“…Hoffman’s best and most complete novel to date.”—Locus

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780441007684
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	12/01/2000
Series:	A Spores Ferry Novel
Pages:	336
Sales rank:	854,074
Product dimensions:	5.10(w) x 7.00(h) x 0.90(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Over the past twenty-four years, Nina Kiriki Hoffman has sold novels, juvenile and media tie-in books, short story collections, and more than two hundred short stories. Her works have been finalists for the Nebula, World Fantasy, Mythopoeic, Sturgeon, and Endeavour awards. Her first novel, The Thread That Binds the Bones, won a Stoker Award. Nina's YA novel Spirits that Walk in Shadow and her science fiction novel Catalyst were published in 2006. Her fantasy novel Fall of Light will be published by Ace Books in May.

Editorial Reviews

Ms. Hoffman crafts a sweet tale, and her characters are deliciously accepting of the wonders they unfold. Part romance, part magic, part ghost story and wholly exceptional—one to add to your permanent collection.
— Romantic Times

Kelly Rae Cooper

It's a pleasure to see a new adult novel from Hoffman, even a lesser work like this one. Her debut novel, The Thread that Binds, won a Stoker for best first novel, but of late she has been writing for R.L. Stine's Ghosts of Fear Street series. This is an innocuous tale of three nomads who become friends and confront the problems in their past. Matt Black is not a witch, but she does have two special powers: "dream-eyes," which allow her to see others' mental landscapes, and the ability to communicate with inanimate objects. After years of wandering alone, Matt is surprised to meet another "special" person: Edmund, a witch who has been "blowing from here to there," using "spirit" to "help things fix themselves." The two quickly become companions and decide to retrace Edmund's life to find out why he is so alone. They visit his childhood friends, including Susan, who becomes part of the group. It turns out that the three all suffer from the effects of traumatic experiences: incest led to self-abusive "zoned" years for Matt; Susan has avoided friendship ever since she fled her controlling father; Edmund's self literally fragmented after he destroyed a man while protecting himself. Hoffman handles the interconnected solutions to the trio's problems with skill, as each solution leads subtly to greater understanding and compassion. At times, however, the characters' long talks skirt perilously close to pop psychology masquerading as wisdom: "He did the only thing he could, because that's what happened. The only place we can change anything is right now." Hoffman's "comfort magic" is even less successful--Edmund's vague "spirit" and "gold" powers are ill defined, little more than ornaments in a quiet tale of three injured souls helping each other toward happiness. (Oct.) Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

A meeting between Matt Black, a woman with the power to communicate with objects, and Edmund, a young man gifted with spirit magic, evolves into a journey into Edmund's past to heal his broken selves. The latest novel by the author of The Thread That Binds the Bones depicts a pair of charmed (and charming) individuals whose unique talents lie not only in their magical skills but in their compassion and resourcefulness. Fans of Charles de Lint's modern-world fantasies should appreciate Hoffman's graceful storytelling and down-to-earth magic. For most fantasy collections. Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

Nina Kiriki Hoffman is one of the most original and important writers of fantasy working in America today. A Red Heart of Memories is a superb novel and deserves to be widely read.
—The New York Review of Science Fiction

Michael M. Levy

Abused teenaged runaway Matilda "Matt" Black survived precariously on the streets until she came to terms with the magical abilities that allow her to talk to inanimate objects shaped by humans—and to open "dream eyes" to read people's hopes and desires. On a cold winter's day she meets Edmund, a witch who's spent several months merged with a crumbling wall, and goes with him to visit his childhood friend Nathan, the ghost of a 14-year-old who committed suicide. During the visit, Edmund hazily recalls a past trauma—of which Matt's dream eyes see only blazing fire—connected with another friend, Susan, who also used to visit Nathan. Since then, Edmund has grown no older. The experience, however, involved Susan's father, a violent control freak who murdered Susan's mother. So they resolve to go find Susan. At a stopover to visit Edmund's sister Abby, Matt finds the house clogged with an unruly magic gold substance that Abby summons but doesn't know how to shape. Matt talks to Gold and tells it not to hurt people, while Abby learns how to mold it into anything she desires. Matt acquires bracelets of gold magic. Moving on, Edmund and Matt find that Susan's now a high-flying executive and has blotted out the past. Can she be persuaded to help Edmund remember the events concealed by the flames? A shame that Hoffman's first hardcover, with its slasher/ripper connotations, gives entirely the wrong impression: she reworks a rather familiar outline with fresh, remarkable ideas and considerable flair.

Kirkus Reviews