From the author of "Chocolat" comes this novel set in a village on the banks of the Loire. The main character again has a shop - in this case a crêperie. Again, food plays a central part in the story. But this is a much darker story altogether, and a much more satisfying read.

For Five Quarters is a novel about betrayal; intimate betrayals, unspoken betrayals, betrayals within the family, the wider community and out into war-torn France. For Framboise this “ripple effect” goes on through the years, gaining momentum and widening its circle all the time. An appropriate image in a story where the symbolic presence of Old Mother, the terrible, quasi-mythic old river pike, is never far away. For me she represents the unspeakable fears of childhood; the fear of death and sexuality, the twin Freudian monsters of the subconscious. Five Quarters is also a story about childhood. As an ex-teacher and mother of a young child I find it easier perhaps to visualize the darker side of childhood, the occasional strangeness which exists in even the most well-behaved and affectionate of our children. Children are far more complex creatures than the Victorian ideal would have us believe; and the children of Five Quarters are neither well-behaved nor affectionate, but have evolved a system of behaviour which has little to do with that of the adults around them, with survival their main priority, and power their only currency. Framboise especially has had to grow up fast. Having lost her father at such an early age that little remains of him in her memory, believing herself unloved by her undemonstrative mother, in constant conflict with her siblings, she has developed a greater cynicism than her years would suggest, and a more certain understanding of the weaknesses of others. Her cruelty against her mother is terribly refined and entirely conscious, and yet on other levels Framboise is very naïve and vulnerable, wanting to love and be loved. It is this vulnerability which inevitably draws her to Tomas leibnitz. He becomes a focus for Framboise's emergent - and hitherto unconscious - sexuality as well as a fantasy father-figure for all three children. More importantly, perhaps, he plays the role of intermediary between the adult world and that of the children; joining in their games, vindicating their actions and putting the seal of authority on their betrayals. His body was soon found, and 20 villagers were shot. Signs went up accusing us of collaborating, and our house was surrounded. "Oui, I was his whore," screamed Maman. "I needed pills for my headaches. I shot him."Framboise claims to be her mother’s favourite child, and and yet Mirabelle treats her quite harshly. Why do you think this is? With two alternating timelines throughout the story, Five Quarters of the Orange may be described as historical fiction. One is during Framboise Dartigen's childhood during the German Occupation. Framboise remembers her difficult relationship with her mother and two siblings as well as her dangerous friendship with a young German officer. The other is present-day France, now following the life of the widowed Framboise Simon, having returned to the village of her childhood from which her family was expelled during the Second World War. Framboise opens a small restaurant, cooking the recipes left to her by her mother, whilst concealing her identity, lest she be recognized as the daughter of the woman who once brought shame and tragedy upon the village. Framboise’s restaurant gains unwelcome national attention when a noted food critic “discovers” it. Why do you think the author chose to portray the world of professional cuisine in this way? What do you think she is trying to say about the “rediscovering” and monetizing of traditional recipes? Joanne Harris a naturally sensuous writer, but her latest book has a dark core...Her descriptive and narrative talents are put to a profounder use...This gripping tale is bound to be made into a film. It's as vivid a journey through human cruelty and kindness as I've read this year Daily Telegraph Framboise Dartigen, the youngest child of Mirabelle Dartigen—a woman still remembered and hated for an incident that happened in the village, Les Laveuses, when Framboise was nine, during the Second World War.

Or consider the heroine, in the first part of the yarn a nine-year-old Anjou peasant with the emotional precocity of a 1990s teenager (and, what's more, already menstruating). This waif creates devious stratagems to induce migraines in her mother (this is where the orange of the title comes in); pursues a pike of mythic dimensions with the determination of a great white hunter; and falls for a German soldier (with not a lot of puppy in the love). What a monster - yet still a wonder in the author's eyes. Rich and dark, Five Quarters of the Orange is a novel of mothers and daughters, of the past and the present, of resisting and succumbing. Harris has a gift for injecting magic into the everyday ... She is an old-fashioned writer in the finest sense, believing in a strong narrative, fully rounded characters, a complex plot, even a moral Daily Telegraph 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 cr?perie - and lets her memory play strange games.Framboise and her siblings are all named after fruit. Try making your own raspberry liqueur at home using this simple recipe. In what way are the children affected by the loss of their father? What does his death do to Mirabelle? Joanne Harris é, na sua essência, exactamente o que este livro oferece: narrativa de ritmo pausado, polvilhada de conteúdo habilmente exposto, montagem engenhosa de argumento e… descrições quase palpáveis de comidas, bebidas, cheiros e sabores. Quando inicio a leitura de uma obra de Joanne Harris é precisamente isto que espero encontrar. Um romance ao nível de “Xeque ao Rei” e com os condimentos que faltaram a “Vinho Mágico”.