‘Magic Lessons’ author Alice Hoffman talks pandemics, plagues and love potions

Given her practical nature, it seems ironic that novelist Alice Hoffman sprinkles magical realism through most of her novels. There’s an abundance of it in her new “Magic Lessons,” the prequel to 1995’s “Practical Magic” and 2017’s “Rules of Magic.”
“Magic Lessons” (Simon & Schuster, $27, Oct. 6) is the origin story of Maria Owens, the ancestor of the witchy Owens women who populate “Magic Lessons” and “Pract