After a years long absence, chocolatier Vianne Rocher returns to the village of Lansquenet in south-west France, to find that newcomers from North Africa have brought big changes to the community, and a minaret is now situated next to the church of Saint-Jerome, calling people to prayer.
Beyond The Main Street Of Les Laveuses Runs The Loire, Smooth And Brown As A Sunning Snake - But Hiding A Deadly Undertow Beneath Its Moving Surface. This Is Where Framboise, A Secretive Widow Named After A Raspberry Liqueur, Plies Her Culinary Trade At The Crêperie - And Lets Memory Play Strange Games.Into This World Comes The Threat Of Revelation As Framboise S Nephew A Profiteering Parisian Attempts To Exploit The Growing Success Of The Country Recipes She Has Inherited From Her Mother, A Woman Remembered With Contempt By The Villagers Of Les Laveuses. As The Spilt Blood Of A Tragic Wartime Childhood Flows Again, Exposure Beckons For Framboise, The Widow With An Invented Past.Joanne Harris Has Looked Behind The Drawn Shutters Of Occupied France To Illuminate The Pain, Delight And Loss Of A Life Changed For Ever By The Uncertainties And Betrayals Of War.
'Who died?' I said. 'Or is it a secret?' 'My mother, Vianne Rocher.' Seeking refuge and anonymity in the cobbled streets of Montmartre, Yanne and her two daughters live peacefully, if not happily, above their little chocolate shop. Nothing unusual marks them out; no red sachets hang by the door.The wind has stopped - at least for a while. Then into their lives blows Zozie de l'Alba, the lady with the lollipop shoes,ruthless, devious and seductive. With everything she loves at stake, Yanne must face a difficult choice; to flee, as she has done so many times before, or to confront her most dangerous enemy... Herself.
Seven o’clock on a Monday morning, five hundred years after the end of the world, and goblins had been at the cellar again. . . . Not that anyone would admit it was goblins. In Maddy Smith’s world, order rules. Chaos, old gods, fairies, goblins, magic, glamours–all of these were supposedly vanquished centuries ago. But Maddy knows that a small bit of magic has survived. The “ruinmark” she was born with on her palm proves it–and makes the other villagers fearful that she is a witch (though helpful in dealing with the goblins-in-the-cellar problem). But the mysterious traveler One-Eye sees Maddy’s mark not as a defect, but as a destiny. And Maddy will need every scrap of forbidden magic One-Eye can teach her if she is to survive that destiny.
In these 22 short stories by Joanne Harris, the miraculous goes hand-in-hand with the mundane, the sour with the sweet, and the beautiful, the grotesque, the seductive and the disturbing are never more than a step away
In this romantic suspense novel the reaappearance of a diary ensures that past and present intertwine, paving the way for unknown consequences. Joanne Harris is also the author of 'Chocolat'. Originally published: London: Warner, 1992.