The Witches of Cambridge

In the 1950s, Ava, a young woman from a small town in Maine, goes to Radcliffe College, there, she meets Lauren, a girl from a wealthy family. They are pulled into a secret group of witches called the Lilith Society. As they learn to use their powers, Ava and Lauren build a strong friendship. However, they face challenges as they navigate their new abilities and different backgrounds.

Ava and Lauren also deal with the effects of McCarthyism on Cambridge's intellectual scene. When members of the Lilith Society start to go missing, they realize that the witch trials from the past might still affect people today.

This is the first book in a new series by Alice Hoffman, known for Practical Magic. It combines historical fiction with magic and mystery.

Simon & Schuster / Scribner | Sep 8, 2026 | 416 pages | ISBN-13 9781668074640 | Historical Fiction / Magical Realism

Read the full book summary from the publisher here

Below we have prepared some thoughtful discussion questions for The Witches of Cambridge to help get your book club conversation started.

1. How do Ava and Lauren's differing backgrounds and views on their abilities contribute to both the strength and potential challenges in their friendship?

2. Both Ava and Lauren are living in an era where women are beginning to access new opportunities, yet they are still pressured to conform to traditional roles. How does joining the Lilith Society alter each woman's perception of what is possible for her future?

3. Throughout the novel, characters are faced with critical decisions about how to wield their power and the lengths they are willing to go to in order to achieve their goals. Which characters do you believe use their power most responsibly, and which ones do you think cross a line?

4. The women of the Lilith Society inherit both power and a history of persecution from the women who came before them. Do you think knowing that history gives Ava and Lauren strength, or does it add another burden?

5. Alice Hoffman blends historical events with magic and witchcraft. Did the magical elements make the novel's themes about women, fear, prejudice, and independence more powerful for you-or would the story have been just as effective without them?

6. Moving to Lilith House provides the girls with a sense of community. Do you think this environment truly helps them heal, or does it isolate them further from reality?

7. When secrets within the Lilith Society are inevitably exposed, how do the characters navigate the emotional fallout of broken trust in contrast to the external dangers they face?

8. How does keeping her magical abilities hidden from the normal world affect Ava's sense of self and emotional isolation?

9. Hoffman connects the fear surrounding witches in colonial New England with the suspicion and accusations of the McCarthy era. Do you think societies tend to repeat this pattern of targeting people who are seen as different or threatening? Where, if anywhere, do you see echoes of that pattern today?

10. What are the major sacrifices the characters make for their art, their magic, or the people they love? Do you think these sacrifices were worth the cost?

11. Do the characters truly control their own destinies, or are they trapped by the curses and prophecies of their family history?

Looking for more questions? Find the publisher's book club questions here .

Book Club Talking Points:
The Witches of Cambridge gives book clubs plenty to talk about. Friendship, love, ambition, and the choices women make are woven together with questions about fear, prejudice, and what happens when society turns against those who are different. The connections between the Salem Witch Trials and McCarthy-era America should lead to an especially lively discussion.

"The great Alice Hoffman kicks off a brand-new witchy series: this time, taking us to Radcliffe and a secret society of witches in the 1950s. This is so deeply my kind of comfort reading and I cannot wait." -Literary Hub, Most Anticipated Books of 2026 (Part 2)

"[A] sagely bewitching immersion in New England history, magic, misogyny, and resistance... Spiked with fascinating facts, incandescent with lush evocations of nature and the supernatural, and propelled by ravishing and suspenseful struggles for love against all odds, this is an enrapturing, illuminating, and slyly relevant saga." -Booklist, Starred Review

"Hoffman again draws on lore and a strong sense of place to root her tale of magic, feminism, and sisterly love. Her characters shine... This is a book that knows what it wants to say and says it. A welcome novel for Hoffman fans and readers of fantastical fiction." -Kirkus

"Enticing... Hoffman proves she's still capable of magic." -Publishers Weekly

"Rich with history, heartbreak, and magic, Hoffman's tale of privilege and persecution expertly navigates past and present, reality and fantasy, all of it rendered in brilliant detail. Each twist of fate feels crueler than the last, and I loved watching these characters fight for every hard-won moment of love and redemption. Utterly spellbinding." -Leigh Bardugo, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Ninth House and The Familiar

"Alice Hoffman introduces us to a whole new world of witches and wonders in The Witches of Cambridge. Richly atmospheric and brimming over with Hoffman's love of family, history, and books, the reader is ushered into the dark halls of academia where secret societies and New England's magical legacy are set against the dangers of the McCarthy era. Hoffman twists together secrets and silences, past and present, into a timely and compelling tale that asks, "who can you trust?" -Deborah Harkness, #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Discovery of Witches and the All Souls Trilogy