Chocolat by Joanne Harris

In the small French village of Lansquenet, nothing much has changed in a hundred years. Then an exotic stranger, Vianne Rocher, blows in on the changing wind with her young daughter, and opens a chocolate boutique directly opposite the church. Soon the villagers cannot keep away, for Vianne can divine their most hidden desires.

But it’s the beginning of Lent, the season of abstinence, and Father Reynaud denounces her as a serious moral danger to his flock. Perhaps even a witch.

If Vianne’s chocolaterie is to survive, it will take kindness, courage and a little bit of magic…

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Chocolat is a novel that needs little introduction.  First published in 1999, it’s been adapted into a highly successful film and currently has three sequels – The Lollipop Shoes, Peaches for Monsieur le Curé, and The Strawberry Thief – with a prequel novel, Vianne, expected in March 2025.  I’ve neither read this novel previously or seen the film (although that has since been recommended to me) but I thoroughly enjoyed it and I’m looking forward to reading the later novels in the series.

Vianne Rocher is a fantastic character and one that I loved getting to know.  She arrives in Lansquenet-sous-Tannes with her young daughter, Anouk, and little plan as to what happens next.  Theirs has been an itinerant lifestyle to this point, and yet Anouk wants to settle somewhere, and Vianne thinks that, on first impression at least, Lansquenet may give them what they need.  She opens her own chocolaterie, and soon makes both friends and enemies within the small community, some of whom see her as a breath of fresh air, while others don’t like her independence or that she is entirely comfortable in her own skin.  Vianne is – whatever she faces – a proud individual who doesn’t feel the need to toe the line, doing what she believes is right even if that puts her in the minority.

Local priest, Father Reynaud, very quickly takes against Vianne, not least because she’s unmarried and entirely independent.  Father Reynaud comes across as a bitter individual and someone who takes the bible’s teachings a little too literally.  Puritanical in the extreme, he sees Vianne’s chocolates – and by extension, Vianne herself – as the epitome of temptation and immorality.  It is the beginning of Lent when Vianne arrives, and Father Reynaud uses her arrival to preach abstinence – something that he does, somewhat unusually (there’s no “do as I say, not as I do” about Father Reynaud, I have to give him that), prescribe to himself, going to ever greater lengths to prove his purity.  He finds Vianne vexing and fascinating in equal measure, and were he not so devout, one might suspect that he’s a little in love with her.

Father Reynaud sees Vianne as someone who is out to demean him – she isn’t, but that’s how he sees it – through her reverence of the older traditions of Eostre and through her refusal to attend his church.  Despite this, there’s no sense that Harris is trying to discredit the church or it’s teachings.  The overarching message for me was of tolerance and doing the right thing, not because we’re instructed to or feel obliged to, but because it’s the right thing to do.  Vianne has an “each to their own” mentality and it’s a shame that more don’t feel the same way as Vianne does more good in Lansquenet in a few short weeks that Father Reynaud has in years.

The fictional village of Lansquenet is brilliantly evoked by the author.  A small village with few secrets between its inhabitants, Vianne is a fresh of breath air, stirring up the status quo and refusing to abide by their expectations.  And it’s populated by some excellent characters – I liked some more than others, but all are brilliantly realised with backstories and motivations for their actions, whether good or bad.  For many, Vianne and her chocolaterie is exactly what they need – she gives them a place to escape to, air their troubles, even to simply be acknowledged in some cases.  In short, somewhere to be themselves.  It sounds wonderful, and while I know it doesn’t exist, I’d love to visit. 

Chocolat is a novel that I loved from the very first page.  It’s one that won’t be constrained to a single genre, featuring as it does a hint of magic that gives it that extra little je ne sais quoi.  I’ll definitely be picking up the later books in the series, and I can’t wait for the prequel novel which promises some of Vianne’s background prior to the events of Chocolat. Highly recommended if, like me, you’ve not got around to this one yet.