THE PROBABLE FUTURE by Alice Hoffman

Alice Hoffman’s magical realism novels never disappoint, if you’re looking for a breath of optimism.  All generations of women in the Sparrow family are born in March, starting with Rebecca in the 1600s.  Each woman discovers that she has a superpower on her thirteenth birthday.  Stella is no exception when she discovers that she can see how people will die.  This ability has its plusses and minuses.  Her mother Jenny can experience other people’s dreams, and that power led her to her charismatic but basically worthless husband Will, whom she is finally divorcing.  Jenny has had no contact with her own mother, Elinor, since she ran off with Will at the age of seventeen, but now she must send Stella to live with Elinor to escape the chaos surrounding Will’s arrest for murder.  Elinor’s gift is that she can tell when someone is lying, and she knows that Will does so habitually.  This is a fast and easy read with everything wrapped up in a tidy fashion at the end, and a month from now I won’t remember the plot at all.  Still, I enjoyed the break from heavier stuff.