Vianne by Joanne Harris

I would like to thank Orion Books for an advance copy of this novel in exchange for a fair and honest review

Publisher - Orion

Published - Out Now

Price - £22 hardback £10.99 ebook

Secrets.
Chocolate.
A touch of magic...

On a warm July evening, Sylviane Rochas scatters her mother's ashes in New York and lets the changing wind blow her to the French seaside town of Marseille.

For the first time in her life, Vianne holds the future in her own hands. Charming her way into a job as a waitress in a local bistrot, she knows that she is not here to stay - when her child is born in a few months, she must be gone.

As she discovers the joy of cooking, making recipes her own with the addition of bittersweet chocolate spices, she realises that it possesses its own magic in this town full of secrets.

Yet Vianne will never forget her mother's warning: that there is danger in revealing the true desires of those around her - and she must flee these cobbled streets before it's too late...

The prequel can be a funny thing. Mention to some Star Wars fans and you can get twitches. But for other readers it’s just a new beginning and that’s when yu start the new adventures. In Joanne Harris’ lyrical and thoughtful novel Vianne we meet the lead of their novel Chocolate in the events leading up to that novel’s start and for me as a much newer reader to this series I found it an impressive place and a memorable tale.

It’s Marseille in 1993 and 21 year old Sylviane arrives alone mourning her mother and carrying an unborn child. Choices await as to where she goes next. Time to settle down, explore the world or something else. With just a few francs in her pockets, a false passport and a light set of luggage options seem limited but she befriends Louis a grumpy bistro owner and starts to learn to cook all under another new name Vianne. But Vianne has always had her mother’s gift for magic and divining the past and future and starts to learn about Louis and his assorted regulars. The past has changed them and possibly a new future can be shaped. At the same time Vianne meets two would be businessmen all planning a new shop to take the city by storm and Vianne finds herself drawn to their new product Chocolate.

Reading is a funny business sometimes and so far I’ve read the fourth book in this series only but for me this prequel is a great jumping in point. Harris always impressed me with their storytelling this is a tale mixing emotion, magic and perhaps that important mixture of those two in another form the power of food.

Vianne jumps out as a fascinating character to me. A young adult also mourning no longer being a child and having lost her sole parent. Now faced with growing into being a mother and not at all sure where she goes next. But despite all that daunting decision making she is still kind, humorous and follows her instincts for good and bad. As our narrator we get all her thoughts and experiences and Harris ensures she is interesting throughout be that describing the power of food, the way she sees into people or her experiences running around the world. She is very much the catalyst of change in the story but also someone seeking their own purpose in life.

With the arrival of Louis and also the chocolatiers Guy and Mahmed we have two personal mysteries to solve and also watch the plots intertwine. With Louis who is a beautifully grumpy yet we see kind character we also see like Vianne a character in mourning but in his case for over 20 years. Vianne learning to cook uses his wife Margot’s cookbook and through her notes and Vianne’s own magical abilities we unpeel the dark secrets behind the little group. This poses a question for Vianne should she just keep her head down and become the mother some think she should be or can she get involved? We see Vianne get over confidant, scared and determined and I liked that Harris keeps us guessing as to how this will pan out. Does tragedy or joy take Vianne to her future in Chocolat?

The other plotline is Vianne learning about chocolate and this allows both for a fascinating plotline as we explore a different set of secrets but also experiences with the homeless and immigrant communities. There is a running theme of seeing people for who they really are and just as much as we learn our main characters all have secrets there is a point here made very well that the public can also see groups they class as just undesirable and don’t see the personal tales everyone carries. It gives the book its heart that there is nothing wrong with paying attention and being kind.

Both streams though bring the fantastical to the story. As a reader who came into Harris via their more clearly marked fantasy tales this combined all the elements I’ve come to enjoy. Magic here can be strange signs made by hands, the power of food to link to memories that Vianne can be experiencing to a strange woman who appears to Vianne alone. There is a great feeling of a world just behind our own that Vianne can perceive (but not yet fully understand) and I loved how these scenes make changes to reality or make us see what goes on behind our characters lives. No one is perfect in this take but learning to live with their better selves is a key lesson explored.

I found myself soon after reading this putting Chcolat into my TBR pile so I can finally see what happened next but just as a delicious pleasing reading experience this was just what I needed. A lyrical read, full of heart and kindness and a touch of magic; what more can anyone want? Highly recommended!