The Marriage of Opposites

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The Marriage of Opposites
384 pages; Simon & Schuster
In Alice Hoffman's The Marriage of Opposites, Rachel Pomié grows up in a small Jewish enclave in early 19th-century St. Thomas. At odds with her traditional, conservative mother, she revels in her independence, reading books and befriending their maid's daughter. But Rachel's willful self-confidence is shattered when her life is negotiated out from under her. "Marriage is not unlike business, and business is something you're good at, my dear," her father tells her as she is betrothed to Isaac, a widower more than twice her age with three children. After Isaac's premature death, Rachel shocks her tiny island community when she falls deeply in love with his nephew and heir, Frédéric, a man seven years her junior. Unwilling to remain sidelined, she takes possession of her own life and chases her bliss in this luminous, Marquez-esque tale.
— Sarah Meyer