Vianne by Joanne Harris - Review

You may remember that I have read a lot of Joanne Harris' books and really like the Chocolat series. You can see some of my other reviews of her books here. When I heard there was a prequel to the series coming out, I had to order it straight away. And then I started it straight away too, because I was just so excited to read it. 

I read Chocolat way back almost twenty-five years ago when I was at sixth form college, on the recommendation of my French teacher, who was both my teacher of French and a teacher who WAS French, and I loved it, and made my parents both read it immediately. We then read all of Joanne's stuff as it came out. Five Quarters of the Orange remains one of my favourite books of all time. I've read the sequels to Chocolat and reviewed them here, so I would say to check them out.

This is a prequel, so it's Vianne's story before Anouk was born. She, then known as Sylviane Rochas, has been living in New York with her dying mother, Jeanne. Jeanne has died, and Vianne has scattered her ashes in the Hudson river and then used her last dollars to buy a flight to Marseille. It is August 1993. Vianne is pregnant with Anouk. 

She gets a job near La Bonne Mere cathedral, at a bistrot run and owned by a man called Louis. His wife, Margot, died in childbirth with their child, after a lot of miscarriages. Louis hasn't got over it. He has regulars at the bistrot, most of whom are quite as miserable as he is. Vianne gets a room there, and then a job. She has to learn to cook Margot's recipes, from her recipe book cum scrapbook that Louis lends to her. 

Vianne then also meets Guy and Mahmed. They are a couple, and they are about to open a chocolaterie. Guy is passionate about cacao and chocolate, but he is lying to his family in Toulouse, who think he is a pro bono lawyer. Vianne starts to learn about chocolate and how to temper it and make chocolates and how to use it in her magic. 

She ends up leaving Marseille, called by the wind, but things go awry and she ends up back there. She discovers a lot about her own past and a lot about the type of mother that she wants to be. 

Like all the Chocolat books, there's a mix of reality and some magic. Vianne consults her mother's tarot cards often; she can read people's colours and performs little spells often. I love this, it feels so real to the original books. The book is set in 1993 but it also really doesn't feel like that - it is timeless, which I love. I liked the backdrop of Marseille, a place that I've never been. It was all so French, which is one of the reasons I love Joanne's books so much. This is a worthy addition to the Chocolat story. I'm giving it five out of five.