Virtual Gliterary Lunch with Joanne Harris

The Strawberry Thief
Joanne Harris

The Author

Joanne Harris is an Anglo-French writer, whose books include fourteen novels, two cookbooks and many short stories.  Her work is extremely diverse, covering aspects of magic realism, suspense, historical fiction, mythology and fantasy.  In 2000, her 1999 novel CHOCOLAT was adapted to the screen, starring Juliette Binoche and Johnny Depp.  CHOCOLAT has sold over a million copies in the UK alone and was a global bestseller.   She is an Honorary Fellow of St Catherine’s College, Cambridge, and in 2013 was awarded an MBE by the Queen.

Praise for Joanne Harris

‘Evocative… sure to delight Chocolat  fans’ – The Observer

The Book

The compelling new Chocolat novel, published 21 years after Joanne’s original bestseller

Vianne Rocher has finally settled down.  Lansquenet-sous-Tannes, the place that once rejected her, has become her home.  With Rosette, her “special child”, she runs her chocolate shop in the square, talks to her friends on the river, is part of the community.  Even Reynaud, the priest, has become a friend.

But when old Narcisse, the florist, dies, leaving a parcel of land to Rosette and a written confession to Reynaud, the life of the sleepy old village is once again thrown into disarray.  The arrival of Narcisse’s relatives, the departure of an old friend and the opening of a mysterious new shop in place of the florist’s across the square – one that mirrors the chocolaterie, and has a strange appeal of its own – all seem to herald some kind of change: a confrontation, a turbulence.  Perhaps, even, a murder…