The Secret - Hardcover

This is Hoffman's first novel and it tackles some difficult issues with the same lively intelligence that characterises her non-fiction works, Lost in Translation and Shtetl. Set in America, mostly in the not-too-distant future, it centres around the growing realisation of young Iris of a mystery surrounding her birth, a secret the knowledge of which will change her life forever. It will explain why she and her mother are abandoned by the adoring and adorable Steven; why people look at them oddly in the street; why her mother Elizabeth is estranged from the rest of her family... Through the course of the novel Iris makes a lonely and painful journey to understand her origins and what motivates her, and while her particular situation is extraordinary, she is forced to confront some universal issues including the desire for love, the meaning of family, the role of science in our lives and the very nature of identity itself. It may not take very long for the reader to guess the secret at the core of this novel, but the pleasure is all in Hoffman's sensitive handling of it, the convincing characterisations, the provocative issues raised. This is an unusual, moving and startling debut from a writer to watch. (Kirkus UK)

Set in 2022, this impressive first novel by nonfiction author Hoffman (Shtetl, 1997, etc.) sketches a creepily plausible near-future in which her protagonist experiences a very 21st-century identity crisis. The title is deliberately misleading. The real, "all-too-human secret" will not be fully understood until the story's fnal pages. Hoffman expertly inserts enough clues for readers to guess the putative secret regarding narrator Iris Surrey's birth shortly before she does it on page 60: Iris isn't just Elizabeth Surrey's daughter, but her mother's clone. Finally understanding the reason for "The Weirdness," the preternatural closeness that always set them apart in the midwestern college town where her mother raised her, Iris flees to Elizabeth's native New York City, whose actual streets are subtly different from the Virtuals she viewed in school: "there were elements of surprise in the actual." The grandparents she's never met have moved from the Park Avenue address she found on old letters, so she takes up with Piotr, who can help her break into a classified e-mail address to locate them. Meanwhile, she watches organic artists reshaping actual animals using computer implants; visits a virtual club, where people use memory-chips to give themselves invented identities for a few hours; attends a debate on "Whither Human Design?"; and tries Piotr's Affect Simulator, which allows users to acquire specific emotions at particular intensities. Hoffman gradually and subtly makes the point that although Iris may feel especially unreal due to her origins (her birth in 2005 was one of the first human clonings), she lives in a world where "reality" is virtual as often as physical. Yet the cautiously optimistic ending suggests that authentic identity and experiences are still attainable. As can happen in philosophically inclined science fiction, the issues are more fully explored than the characters; but when those issues include the nature of reality and the location of the human soul, it's not such a drawback. (Kirkus Reviews)

A haunting debut novel from the acclaimed author of Shtetl, Lost in Translation, and Exit into History. . Iris Surrey seems to have a perfectly normal childhood. She lives with her mother in a rambling wooden house, in a small college town not far from Chicago. But something isn't quite right in her perfect, bell-jar world. There may be something wrong with her mother. Or with her. Or with her mother and her. Small disturbances lead Iris to suspect a deeper peculiarity in the very fabric of her life. Something not quite...natural. Or authentic. But what does that mean? You are what you think you are, aren't you? Who is to judge the nature of your nature, your character, your reality, except you, the subject yourself? Unless you aren't real enough to know in the first place. In this gripping debut novel, writer Eva Hoffman uses the near future to reflect on the fast-moving present and to explore various kinds of secrets: intimate secrets and family secrets, the kinds of secrets that can be decoded from clues, and the kind that only lead to more tantalizing questions about the nature of consciousness and self-knowledge. This is a philosophical fable about an uncannily powerful mother-daughter bond and a young woman's quest for identity. The Secret explores ancient conundrums of selfhood and the profound challenges posed by contemporary science to our most cherished notions of individuality.