Vianne Rocher and her 6-year-old daughter, Anouk, arrive in the small village of Lansquenet-sous-Tannes--"a blip on the fast road between Toulouse and Bourdeaux"--in February, during the carnival. Three days later, Vianne opens a luxuriant chocolate shop crammed with the most tempting of confections and offering a mouth-watering variety of hot chocolate drinks. It's Lent, the shop is opposite the church and open on Sundays, and Francis Reynaud, the austere parish priest, is livid.

One by one the locals succumb to Vianne's concoctions. Joanne Harris weaves their secrets and troubles, their loves and desires, into her third novel, with the lightest touch. There's sad, polite Guillame and his dying dog; thieving, beaten-up Joséphine Muscat; schoolchildren who declare it "hypercool" when Vianne says they can help eat the window display--a gingerbread house complete with witch. And there's Armande, still vigorous in her 80s, who can see Anouk's "imaginary" rabbit, Pantoufle, and recognizes Vianne for who she really is. However, certain villagers--including Armande's snobby daughter and Joséphine's violent husband--side with Reynaud. So when Vianne announces a Grand Festival of Chocolate commencing Easter Sunday, it's all-out war: war between church and chocolate, between good and evil, between love and dogma.

Reminiscent of Herman Hesse's short story "Augustus," Chocolat is an utterly delicious novel, coated in the gentlest of magic, which proves--indisputably and without preaching--that soft centers are best. --Lisa Gee, Amazon.co.uk

Greeted as "an amazement of riches ... few readers will be able to resist" by The New York Times, Chocolat is an enchanting novel about a small French town turned upside down by the arrival of a bewitching chocolate confectioner, Vianne Rocher, and her spirited young daughter.

Chocolat / 0-141-00018-X

Chocolat is easily one of my favorite novels - the escapism is fantastic, the food descriptions are mouth-watering, the plot and prose are beautiful. I can hardly believe that a novel so richly packed with meaning could be so relatively short. Harris' prose here is at its finest, as we follow the narratives of Vianne, the free-spirited chocolate-creating witch, and Reynaud, the guilt-stricken oppressive village priest.

Each narrative is uniquely told, with personality quirks inherent to each, and each narrative can be subtly imperfect - Reynaud slowly descends into madness, as does his precise narrative; Vianne's fear of weakness and displacement causes her to falsely claim that she never cries, causes her to state a yearning to move on which does not exist, and causes her to doubt her own importance to her lover Roux - creating a tantalizing problem for the reader: do we believe Vianne or do we believe Roux and his actions? The problem is - like Vianne's chocolates - delicate and bitter-sweet, with possibilities abounding on either side.

Although this is a novel featuring a single mother, and a non-Christian at that, I do not believe that this novel represents an attack on any particular way of life. Vianne states, early on, that the goal of life is "to be happy" (without, of course, hurting others in the process). Though the antagonist is a priest, it is clear that he has his own individual demons, and it is *not* his office within the church which makes him evil. Several villagers are held up as examples of genuine Christians who do not flaunt their belief purely for power or social standing. Nor is this some kind of screed against men - Vianne, Josephine, and Armande are aided time and again by kind, emotionally strong men who value these women for their strength of character. Indeed, if I were to call this style of writing anything, I would call it 'humanist' - it is clear that Vianne is no less a valuable person for being a female or for being a witch; no less is Guillaume a valuable person for being a male or for being a Christian. All these people, Harris seems to be saying, are people and thus deserve love and a little bit of kindness in their life and, she suggests, the right and privilege to decide when enough is enough. (Whether or not the reader agrees is left gently to the reader - Harris is not preachy or didactic.)

I highly recommend this book for anyone - this is a book that spans gender, religion, age, and country. (Note: Chocolat is best enjoyed with a tall glass of milk and dark chocolate truffles near at hand!)

I had seen the movie and loved it. Now that I have read the book, I am even more a fan of Joanne Harris. I cannot wait to get other books.

This read is not a quick one, if you take the time to get into all the detail of the people, and the lay of the town. It draws in at the first sentence. to the very end, you want to know more about the citizens of Lansquenet and Vianne and Anouk. We know from preview of Ms. Harris' book, that they move on, yet you want more of the inhabitents of the town.

Recommend it highly vs the movie, yet the movie ( bought the Penguin release with movie cover) will grab you also.

Usually I like to read a book before I see the movie, but this time it was the other way around. I enjoyed both. The book was interesting, but in a darker way. The story is written in first person, alternating between Vianne Rocher and the priest of the village. It is much more in depth about Vianne's past and present. I missed the Count de Renoux character from the movie, for in the book that place is filled by the priest, who has a very dark side. Some of my other favorite characters from the movie are also missing. So all in all, it was a good book, but it made me want to see the movie again.

Forget all the food metaphors beckoning; I'd spend months trying to not sound cliche. But this book, especially in its similes, has language -- I'm not kidding about this -- that rivals Shakespeare's in creativity, and in its ability to evoke clear, luscious images. I read much of it out loud, letting the feel of the words in my mouth, their sounds in my ears, enhance the richness.

Thank you Ms. Harris, for the lessons, for the compassion, and especially for the language.

I love the way she mixes the wonderful smells of chocolat and fresh food, which are gifts from God, with the nastiness of miserable people.