Second Nature

A New York Times bestseller, Second Nature tells the story of a suburban woman, Robin Moore, who discovers her own free spirit through a stranger she brings home to her perfectly ordered neighborhood. As Robin impulsively draws this beautiful, uncivilized man into her world-meanwhile coping with divorce and a troubled teenage son-she begins to question her wisdom and doubt her own heart, and ultimately she changes her ideas about love and humanity.

Christopher Lehmann-Haupt

The fable that lies at the heart of Alice Hoffman's lyrical new novel, "Second Nature," is familiar almost to the point of cliche. . . . "Second Nature" is moving, up to a point. But beyond that point you are forced to think about its premise that humans dare not alienate themselves from nature by thinking about it abstractly, a proposition that is so worn and debatable that it finally undermines an otherwise diverting story. -- New York Times

In a prolific career that began with early writings in the American Review, Alice Hoffman has expanded and developed the idea of family and community -- the forces that bind it together and the forces that drive it apart -- with understated and elegant prose and powerful and complex characters.