Marriage of the Smila-Hoffmans

How does your family’s history define you?

Jenny considers herself American, independent, and in control of her own destiny, yet she struggles to escape her European parents’ experience in Trieste during World War II, a time when painful choices were necessary and deep trauma occurred–trauma they have always avoided speaking of to their daughter. As she moves into an unsettling marriage, she finds herself challenged by the lines between past and present, family and self, until a tragic accident forces her to reevaluate her own identity.

Years later, as Jenny travels to the Riviera with a new love, echoes of the past return to blur the present, casting shadows on some memories and illuminating others. She must finally come to terms with her place in her family’s history and decide whether it will define her.

Marriage of the Smila-Hoffmans brings together Maryann D'Agincourt’s insightful novels Shade and Light and August. Now finally available together in a single volume with a new prologue and interlude by the author, they present a sweeping story of love, history, trauma, and art that readers will not want to miss.