Five Quarters of the Orange - Joanne Harris Reviews

"Five Quarters of the Orange" is the third novel in Joanne Harris's "food trilogy", following "Chocolat" and "Blackberry Wine." Its interesting that the three books are referred to as a trilogy as this book has no connection to the other two except for the fact that food plays a prevalent role in the plot. ...  Read the complete review

This book must have had a lot of thought going into it, it is very carefully constructed, and has more cliff hangers than Devon. It is about a woman who moves back to her childhood town, and where she thinks home is. She starts up a creperie, but her vicious and jealous chef of a nephew blackmails her in order to try and extort her famous and ...  Read the complete review

I was given this book and am delighted with the discovery of the best book written by this author, more famed for her book “Chocolat” which was made into a major film, though which lacked clarity in book form. The writer progressed, she moved on, and although the story in this book is based in a small village in the Loire region of France, and ...  Read the complete review

This is the story of Framboise - no, not a bottle of raspberry liqueur (thank heavens), but rather the woman by that name from a farm on the river Loire in the French village of Les Laveuses. This is partially the story of Framboise's troubled childhood with her brother (named Casis), sister (Reine-Claude) and especially her unwell and widowed ...  Read the complete review

First there was Chocolat, then Blackberry Wine, and now there are oranges. Joanne Harris has been credited with inventing a new literary genre - "gastromance" and I for one am hooked on this indulgent and sensuous feast of a novel. You only need to look at the names of the central characters to see Harris?s preoccupation with ...  Read the complete review

W.H Smith currently have a two paperbacks for ten pounds offer (well worth checking out) which prompted a forray into a new author for me. "Five Quarters of the Orange" is not Joanne Harris' first book, but I was drawn to it by the cover - wooden pannels in front of which hang a scraping device, an orange, dried flowers and a hand ...  Read the complete review

Joanne Harris was born to a French mother and grew up in a small Yorkshire village, I guess that is why most of her books are set in France and revolve around the small village mentality. By small village mentality, I mean the fact that everybody's business must be known, people must conform to a set of village rules and the individual is ...  Read the complete review

My mum bought this book from Tescos of all places, the last time we went, and having read ‘Blackberry Wine’ (although not Chocolat) and having enjoyed it, I really wanted to read this one. <The plot> The story starts off with an old lady telling us about her current life, how she moves back to the village of her birth ...  Read the complete review

In “Five Quarters Of The Orange” Joanne Harris continues with the foodie theme which she used so effectively in her best selling novel “Chocolat” (which was subsequently made into a film starring Juliette Binoche.) However, this latest novel is not quite as whimsical as “Chocolat”, and the underlying theme is ...  Read the complete review

Wine (red), check. Breeze, check. Comfy(ish) chair, check. Sea murmur, check. Book, check. Divine! Start reading... "They only went occasionally to the river to swin, Reine-Claude entering the water gingerly, and only in the deeper, clearer parts, where snakes were unlikely to venture. I sought their ...  Read the complete review

I was lucky enough to read a proof copy of this wonderful masterpiece. My boss at the book shop writes reviews for The Bookseller and he was sent this book to review. I loved Chocolat, and was desperate to read more of her books. It is mouth watering. Joanne Harris is a descriptive genius. You can taste the words from the page, they melt in ...  Read the complete review