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CHocolat
Why
we chose this book
Simply decadent. This enchanting novel, and the subsequent Johnny
Depp and Juliette Binoche movie, is laced with divine descriptions of
mouth-watering chocolates and wonderfully vivid characters. It is a
sinfully sweet decadence for the mind and the spirit! ~Beth
From
The Philadelphia Inquirer
"Part
fairy tale, laden with high farce and tongue-in-cheek humor drenched with
savage wit and bursts of wisdom, suffused with lush detail and finely
drawn interesting characters..."
From
Publishers Weekly
The battle
lines between church and chocolate are drawn by this British (and part
French) author in her appealing debut about a bewitching confectioner
who settles in a sleepy French village and arouses the appetites of the
pleasure-starved parishioners. Young widow Vianne Roche's mouthwatering
bonbons, steaming mugs of liqueur-laced cocoa and flaky cream-filled
patisserie don't earn her a warm welcome from the stern prelate of
Lansquenet-sous-Tannes. In Francis Reynaud's zeal to enforce strict
Lenten vows of self-denial, he regards his sybaritic neighbor with
suspicion and disdain. Undaunted, Vianne garners support from the town's
eccentrics, chiefly Armande Voizin, the oldest living resident, a
self-professed sorceress who senses in Vianne a kindred spirit. A
fun-loving band of river gypsies arrives, and a colorful pageant
unfurls. The novel's diary form, counting down the days of Lent until
Easter, is suspenseful, and Harris takes her time unreeling the skein of
evil that will prove to be Reynaud's undoing. As a witch's daughter who
inherited her mother's profound distrust of the clergy, Vianne never
quite comes to life, but her child, Anouk, is an adorable sprite, a
spunky six-year-old already wise to the ways of an often inhospitable
world. Gourmand Harris's tale of sin and guilt embodies a fond
familiarity with things French that will doubtless prove irresistible to
many readers.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a
division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From the Publisher
When beautiful, unmarried Vianne Rocher sweeps into the pinched
little French town of Lansquenet on the heels of the carnival and opens
a gem of a chocolate shop across the square from the church, she begins
to wreak havoc with the town's Lenten vows. Her uncanny ability to
perceive her customer's private discontents and alleviate them with just
the right confection coaxes the villagers to abandon themselves to
temptation and happiness, but enrages Père Reynaud, the local priest.
Certain only a witch could stir such sinful indulgence and devise such
clever cures, Reynaud pits himself against Vianne and vows to block the
chocolate festival she plans for Easter Sunday, and to run her out of
town forever. Witch or not (she'll never tell), Vianne soon sparks a
dramatic confrontation between those who prefer the cold comforts of the
church and those who revel in their newly discovered taste for
pleasure.
Greeted as "an amazement of riches ... few readers will be able to
resist" by The New York Times.
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