Saturday, March 14, 2009

Blackberry Wine, Joanne Harris

Having found it difficult to sympathise with Harris' protagonist in Chocolat, I wasn't sure what to expect from Blackberry Wine. However, I was encouraged to try it and was very curious about a story told from the point of view of a bottle of wine. Well, I'm really glad I did read this. A lovely book full of magic, set in the same town as Chocolat.

Told in two times, late nineties and mid seventies, it follows Jay through three summers in his teens and later as a formerly successful writer. Having opened some wine homemade by his childhood companion Joe, he begins to connect with his childhood self and buys a house in France and ups and leaves, much to his girlfriend's horror. In France he finds his past is waiting along with new mysteries.

I don't want to reveal any more as it would spoil it, but as the narrator would say, it's a full bodied story with a good finish (and a hint of berries).

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