Hooray! You have added the first book to your bookshelf. Check it out now!
[−]
  • Search Digit-count Valid ISBN Invalid ISBN Valid Barcode Invalid Barcode
Blog this item

Five Quarters of the Orange

By Joanne Harris

(38)

| Paperback | 9780552998833

Like Five Quarters of the Orange?
Join aNobii to see if your friends read it, and discover similar books!

Sign up for free

Book Description

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 creperie - and lets her memory play strangContinue

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 creperie - and lets her memory play strange games.

Into this world comes the threat of revelation as Framboise's nephew - a profiteering Parisian - attempts to exploit the growing success of teh country recipes she has inherited from her mother, a woman remembered with contempt by the villagers of Les Laveuses. As the spilt blood of a tragic wartime childhood flows again, exposure beckons for Framboise, the widow with an invented past.

Critics

  • 'Five Quarters of the Orange' by Joanne Harris

    Building on from her thematic explorations of the world of chocolate in Chocolat and wine-making in Blackberry Wine, this novel serves up more delicious and mouth-watering descriptions of food and baking set in a French creperie by the River Loire. T ... (read full critics)

    readingmatters published on Mon, 27 Sep 2010

  • Cooking the books

    Five Quarters of the Orange Joanne Harris 432pp, Doubleday, £12.99 Buy it at a discount at BOL First Chocolat , then Blackberry Wine , now oranges. If the next is called Walnut , Joanne Harris will have the full dessert. A preoccupation with food mak ... (read full critics)

    guardian.co.uk published on Sat, 25 Sep 2010

4 Reviews

Login or Sign Up to write a review

  • My thoughts

    This was a good book about family and secrets. I liked how Framboise learned about her mother through the diary/recipe book and how she and others came to understand what happened years ago.

    Is this helpful?

    krin5292 said on Jun 5, 2010 | Add your feedback

  • Another engrossing read from Joanne Harris which although similar to ‘Chocolat ‘and ‘Blackberry Wine’ it is a much darker story. Once again set in France this time a small village ‘Les Laveuses’ near Angers on the banks of the Loire, during WWII and the present day.
    The protagonist is Framboise ... (continue)

    Another engrossing read from Joanne Harris which although similar to ‘Chocolat ‘and ‘Blackberry Wine’ it is a much darker story. Once again set in France this time a small village ‘Les Laveuses’ near Angers on the banks of the Loire, during WWII and the present day.
    The protagonist is Framboise Dartigen who has returned to the village after a long absence to live in the farmhouse of her childhood. Her mother Mirabelle Dartigen has since died and part of Framboise’s inheritance was an album of memories and recipes. It is through studying this album that her memories of her childhood start to haunt her. Framboise has invented a new identity for herself, as she knows the villagers would look on her with contempt if they knew whose daughter she was. She uses her mother’s recipes from the album in her restaurant which helps to make it the success it is. The consequent interference of her jealous and scheming nephew and his wife threaten to expose her true identity. However there is already one village friend from her childhood who guessed immediately who she really was and it with his help that she prevents this happening and unravels the mysteries that drove her family to leave the village during the Second World War. Putting the tragedies of the past behind her Framboise is finally able to look forward to a happy future, now she is no longer resisting the truths discovered in her mother’s album.
    As with all Joanne Harris’s novels that I have read I highly recommend this one.

    Is this helpful?

    Lindyloumac said on Sep 27, 2009 about the Audio Cassette edition | Add your feedback

  • Many similarities to Chocolat - superstitious villagers, secrets and widows. Some twists in the tale, enough to keep me interested on a long train journey and an easy read.

    Is this helpful?

    Canda said on Jan 1, 2008 | Add your feedback

  • Lusty flavour of oranges

    A child's dark fantasy of adventures both big and small. A raw discovery about what adults do, and what adults don't.

    Is this helpful?

    iljlee said on Aug 27, 2007 | Add your feedback

Book Details

Improve data of this book

Groups with this in collection

Prices Change currency & sellers

ISBN Edition List Sale Seller
9780552998833 Paperback -- $13.76 ebooks.com
$12.86 $11.68 The Book Depository
Other editions →
Added to Shelf Added to Wish List

Inline Translation Mode

Left click to navigate, right click to translate.

inline translation guide

or close

Inline translation is not ready for this page yet.

Inline translation mode.

Share this page with your friends.

The viewport has not loaded.