He is bewildered by his reclusive neighbor, Marise d'Api, who apparently coveted his derelict house and land, and is ostracized by the townspeople. Leaving Kerry in London, Jay moves to Lansquenet and starts a new rural life, beginning to write under his own name again. After downing a bottle of Joe's '75 Special, which he has been hoarding for 24 years, Jay decides to buy the house sight unseen. When Jay stumbles across an advertisement for an 18th-century "chateau" in wine-growing country, the spell of his misery is broken. Joe, a colorful character who made wines from fruits and berries, inspired Joe's successful first novel. Flashbacks reveal that Jay's only recollections of happiness are the golden summers he spent as a youth with old Joseph "Jackapple Joe" Cox in the small English town of Kirby Monckton. Since then, he has been churning out B-novels under a pseudonym he currently lives with his girlfriend, Kerry, an aggressively successful 25-year-old celebrity journalist. Fourteen years have passed since Jay's debut novel, Jackapple Joe, won the Prix Goncourt. This time wine replaces chocolate as Harris's magic elixir, and the newcomer to the village of Lansquenet sur Tannes is Jay Mackintosh, a 37-year-old has-been writer from London. Like her well-received 1999 novel, Chocolat, Harris's latest outing unfolds around the arrival of an outsider in a tiny French town. There, a ghost from the past waits to confront him, and the reclusive Marise - haunted, lovely and dangerous - hides a terrible secret behind her closed shutters.īetween them, a mysterious chemistry. As the unusual properties of the strange brew take effect, Jay escapes to a derelict farmhouse in the French village of Lansquenet. Jay Mackintosh is trapped by memory in the old familiar landscape of his childhood, to which he longs to return.Ī bottle of home-brewed wine left to him by a long-vanished friend seems to provide the key to an old mystery.
'A very good book, lots of warmth and light' ***** Reader review 'I could NOT put this book down' ***** Reader review beautifully written and very atmospheric' ***** Reader review 'A wonderful story' - ***** Reader review Blackberry Wine has all the appeal of a velvety scented glass of vintage wine' - DAILY MAIL 'Joanne Harris has the gift of conveying her delight in the sensuous pleasures of food, wine, scent and plants. 'Thickly sensuous, wildly indulgent, magical escapism: Chocolat lovers will drink deeply' - GUARDIAN Seamlessly interweaving the past and the present, magic and memory, it is a sensual rollercoaster that will appeal to fans of Victoria Hislop, Fiona Valpy, Maggie O'Farrell and Rachel Joyce. This captivating and charming novel from international multi-million copy seller Joanne Harris takes us back to the French village we first discovered in Chocolat.
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