Peaches may be in the title of this novel and are a major motif throughout, but what else was I going to indulge in when we’re about as far away from fresh peach season as possible? Chocolate of course! After the tumultuous events of the previous novel, where Vianne and Anouk almost lost it all to trickster Zosie, and a well timed letter from their dearly departed friend Armandé it is time for their little family to return to Lansquenet. Alongside them follows their familiar winds, but what they don’t realize (even with Armandé’s warning that their help will be desperately needed) is how much things have changed in the sleepy little village that they stired up with their chocolaterie. The winds have already blown in a new group of people, immigrants from the Middle East and North Africa, whose customs are even farther removed than Vianne’s in the eyes of some of the villagers. Some are just fine and make friends with the newcomers at first, but their stubborn curate Reynaud has a hard time acclimatizing to the new realities in France (and in the practises of his own church) and runs afoul of the group by apparent accident. The story is rife with small town sensibilities (and their inescapable micro dramas), and in a surprising twist we find ourselves spending much of the story inside the character of the obdurate priest as he struggles with his faith, his community, and ultimately his heart. Reynaud may be a bit of an unlikeable character from the outside, as his cold demeanour does not win him friends or even passive allies, but seeing the town from his perspective is a gratifying structural element that keeps the story from becoming a politicized retelling of the first novel in the series. Harris also steps away from what we might expect from a triumphant return to Lansquenet with the highly modernized story that relies on current events to drive everything - we may be back in small town France, but the themes about female empowerment, immigration, and changing times are fraught with an all to realistic tension. There were definitely parts of the story that felt distinctly uncomfortable in comparison to the cozier tendencies of Vianne’s usual stories, and a few characters and events felt particularly fraught, but by the finale Harris revealed a surprising depth of knowledge about the Muslim community and the impacts and changes that its women are going through. Vianne, Anouk, and Rosette (and their chocolate) are far smaller characters it seems in this story, but in doing so they make room for new and unique stories to be told: those of Reynaud, the Woman in Black Inès Bencharki, and of the new community that calls Lansequenet home. ( )

It isn't often you receive a letter from the dead. When Vianne Rocher receives a letter from beyond the grave, she has no choice but to follow the wind that blows her back to Lansquenet, the village in south-west France where, eight years ago, she opened up a chocolate shop. But Vianne is completely unprepared for what she finds there. Women veiled in black, the scent of spices and peppermint tea, and there, on the bank of the river Tannes, facing the square little tower of the church of Saint-Jerome like a piece on a chessboard - slender, bone-white and crowned with a silver crescent moon - a minaret. Nor is it only the incomers from North Africa that have brought big changes to the community. Father Reynaud, Vianne's erstwhile adversary, is now disgraced and under threat. Could it be that Vianne is the only one who can save him?

Vianne Rocher, the woman who set up shop in Lansquenet in Chocolat returns to the town at the request of one of her friends - now long dead - via a letter left for her to be handed over on her grandson's 21st birthday.

She brings her two daughters Anouk and Rosette (and their not-quite-invisible friends) with her, but her partner Roux remains in Paris on their house boat. His anger at how the boat people were treated the last time has not disappaited enough for him to return. Vianne returns to find things have changed significantly - Father Renaud is no longer saying mass in the church, and is in some kind of disgrace and the old tanneries outside of town is now packed with Muslims from North Africa. The influx of these second and third generation immigrants - barely keeping inside the law with respect to their mosque and schools - is causing tension within the community and Vianne has returned into this tension between the two communities.

Vianne uses her charm and special skills in an attempt to bring some form of calm to the community. She comes across some of her old adversaries, many of whom are in various levels of success or disappointment. The young Muslim women, who previously had enjoyed a level of western freedom of dress, are taking to the veil and removing themselves from community, and it is seen to be the effect of another recent arrival in town, who remains under the veil since the day she arrived.

Finally things come to a head, where people have gone missing, the river-rats (including Roux) have arrived back in town, and it seems there have a lot of accusations, misunderstandings, and secrets are exposed on both sides that mean the story reaches a crises point, and it is only a meeting of both groups around the river (that metaphorically and physically runs between the two sets of people) that brings things to a head and allows it to be resolved.

There is the usual magical realism in this, where Vianne uses her skills (Chocolate, Tarot cards, reading colours/auras) to try and work out what's happening. Vianne's lack of self confidence kicks in when she sees the son of a friend, who was born after Chocolat, and whose father just might be Roux. The story is told from a French atheist (pagan?) woman and the local Catholic priest, rather than that of any Muslim, so this can only be told from their point of view. Each woman is portrayed as a human first, rather than a stereotype, and the story goes some way as to show how things are handled according to the strict rules of each person’s community…

This is/was a well timed book, having been published in 2012, when there were still questions over whether the Niqab was to be banned in France. I have seen some reviewers complain that perhaps Muslim women should be allowed to tell their own stories their own way, but until Western readers and publishers are open enough to publish (buy, read, promote) books by Muslim women, then we will have to make use of those who can handle the story adequately.

It isn't often you receive a letter from the dead. When Vianne Rocher receives a letter from beyond the grave, she has no choice but to follow the wind that blows her back to Lansquenet, the village in south-west France where, eight years ago, she opened up a chocolate shop. But Vianne is completely unprepared for what she finds there. Women veiled in black, the scent of spices and peppermint tea, and there, on the bank of the river Tannes, facing the square little tower of the church of Saint-Jerome like a piece on a chessboard - slender, bone-white and crowned with a silver crescent moon - a minaret. Nor is it only the incomers from North Africa that have brought big changes to the community. Father Reynaud, Vianne's erstwhile adversary, is now disgraced and under threat. Could it be that Vianne is the only one who can save him?

Vianne Rocher, the woman who set up shop in Lansquenet in Chocolat returns to the town at the request of one of her friends - now long dead - via a letter left for her to be handed over on her grandson's 21st birthday.

She brings her two daughters Anouk and Rosette (and their not-quite-invisible friends) with her, but her partner Roux remains in Paris on their house boat. His anger at how the boat people were treated the last time has not disappaited enough for him to return. Vianne returns to find things have changed significantly - Father Renaud is no longer saying mass in the church, and is in some kind of disgrace and the old tanneries outside of town is now packed with Muslims from North Africa. The influx of these second and third generation immigrants - barely keeping inside the law with respect to their mosque and schools - is causing tension within the community and Vianne has returned into this tension between the two communities.

Vianne uses her charm and special skills in an attempt to bring some form of calm to the community. She comes across some of her old adversaries, many of whom are in various levels of success or disappointment. The young Muslim women, who previously had enjoyed a level of western freedom of dress, are taking to the veil and removing themselves from community, and it is seen to be the effect of another recent arrival in town, who remains under the veil since the day she arrived.

Finally things come to a head, where people have gone missing, the river-rats (including Roux) have arrived back in town, and it seems there have a lot of accusations, misunderstandings, and secrets are exposed on both sides that mean the story reaches a crises point, and it is only a meeting of both groups around the river (that metaphorically and physically runs between the two sets of people) that brings things to a head and allows it to be resolved.

There is the usual magical realism in this, where Vianne uses her skills (Chocolate, Tarot cards, reading colours/auras) to try and work out what's happening. Vianne's lack of self confidence kicks in when she sees the son of a friend, who was born after Chocolat, and whose father just might be Roux. The story is told from a French atheist (pagan?) woman and the local Catholic priest, rather than that of any Muslim, so this can only be told from their point of view. Each woman is portrayed as a human first, rather than a stereotype, and the story goes some way as to show how things are handled according to the strict rules of each person’s community…

This is/was a well timed book, having been published in 2012, when there were still questions over whether the Niqab was to be banned in France. I have seen some reviewers complain that perhaps Muslim women should be allowed to tell their own stories their own way, but until Western readers and publishers are open enough to publish (buy, read, promote) books by Muslim women, then we will have to make use of those who can handle the story adequately.

While the plot initially moved along with intriguing mysteries, they soon became prolonged,
odd
(with the dragging along Bam),
and eventually horrible with the imprisoned Cure'. ( )

I loved this whole trilogy (well trilogy as an afterthought, but anyway). I even took a break from work to finish this... I loved the somewhat open ending: there might be a fourth book or not :) ( )