See the Cover of Alice Hoffman’s ‘The Witches of Cambridge’ (Exclusive)

Alice Hoffman has a spellbinding novel arriving soon.

The Practical Magic author will kickstart a new trilogy this summer, PEOPLE can exclusively announce. The first book, The Witches of Cambridge, is due out from Scribner in August.

The Witches of Cambridge centers on Ava and Lauren, who are students at Radcliffe College in Cambridge, Mass. in the 1950s, per its official synopsis. 

Though complete opposites — Ava is from a small town and Lauren comes from the wealthy Cambridge family — the two girls form a bond when they’re both recruited into the Lilith Society, a historic secret group for witches. The Lilith Society becomes an escape, particularly as the legacy of McCarthyism hovers over the city.

But when girls begin to go missing from the Lilith Society, Ava and Lauren come to understand that the state’s legacy of witch trials may still be alive.

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The novel, Hoffman explained, had its origins in academia too.

“I went back to school at Harvard and what began as my term paper ended up as a novel about witches, love, magic, sorrow, betrayal, sisterhood and best friends,” Hoffman says.

The novel has received early praise from authors including Leigh Bardugo, who says the novel is “rich with history, heartbreak and magic.”

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The book is also arriving just in time for Practical Magic 2, the film adaptation of Hoffman’s 2021 novel The Book of Magic. Starring Nicole Kidman and Sandra Bullock, the sequel to the beloved 1998 film will hit theaters on Sept. 18.

The Witches of Cambridge will be published on Aug. 11 and is now available for preorder, wherever books are sold.