New Releases by Joanne Harris

Stories are like Russian dolls; open them up, and in each one youâe(tm)ll find another story. Conjured from a wickedly imaginative pen, here is a new collection of short stories that showcases Joanne Harrisâe(tm)s exceptional talent as a teller of tales, a spinner of yarns.Sensuous, mischievous, uproarious and wry, these are tales that combine the everyday with the unexpected; wild fantasy with bittersweet reality. Come to the house where it is Christmas all year round; meet the ghost who lives on a Twitter timeline; be spooked by a newborn baby created with sugar, spice and lashings of cake. Worry for a young girl in the Congo who rides the rapids to earn a crust of bread; and spy on Norse gods battling each other for survival in modern Manhattan. In her first short-story collection since Jigs & Reels, let Joanne Harris ensnare and delight you with the variety and inventiveness of her storytelling.

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...

The squabbling Norse gods and goddesses of Runemarks are back! And there''s a feisty new heroine on the scene: Maggie, a girl the same age as Maddy but brought up a world apart - literally, in World''s End, the focus of the Order in which Maddy was raised. Now the Order is destroyed, Chaos is filling the vacuum left behind... and is breaching the everyday world. A chilling prophecy from the Oracle. A conflict between two girls. And with just twelve days to stave off the Apocalypse, carnage is about to be unleashed . . .

From the author of Chocolat, an intoxicating fairy tale of alchemy and love where wine is the magic elixir. Jay Mackintosh is a 37-year-old has-been writer from London. Fourteen years have passed since his first novel, Jackapple Joe, won the Prix Goncourt. His only happiness comes from dreaming about the golden summers of his boyhood that he spent in the company of an eccentric vintner who was the inspiration of Jay''s debut novel, but who one day mysteriously vanished. Under the strange effects of a bottle of Joe''s ''75 Special, Jay decides to purchase a derelict yet promising château in Lansquenet-sous-Tannes. There, a ghost from his past waits to confront him, and his new neighbour, the reclusive Marise - haunted, lovely and dangerous - hides a terrible secret behind her closed shutters. Between them, there seems to be a mysterious chemistry. Or could it be magic? Joanne Harris''s previous novel, Chocolat, was both a dazzling literary success and a commercial triumph. Chocolat, the major motion picture directed by Lasse Hallström (The Cider House Rules), was released in December 2000, starring Juliette Binoche, Johnny Depp, Dame Judy Dench, Alfred Molina, and Lena Olin.

Because I am a girl I am less likely to go to school Because I am a girl I am more likely to suffer from malnutrition Because I am a girl I am more likely to suffer violence in the home Because I am a girl I am more likely to marry and start a family before I reach my twenties. Eight authors have visited eight different countries and spoken to young women and girls about their lives, struggles and hopes. The result is an extraordinary collection of writings about prejudice, abuse, and neglect, but also about courage, resilience and changing attitudes. Proceeds from sales of this book will go to PLAN, one of the world''s largest child-centered community development organisations.

''I''m still rather fond of this first book of mine, in spite of all the time that has elapsed, and in spite of the way my style has evolved.'' Joanne Harris Caution - May contain vampires. It''s never easy to face the fact that a man you once loved passionately has found the girl of his dreams, as Alice discovers when Joe introduces her to his new girlfriend. Then Alice finds an old diary and reads about two men and the mysterious woman who bewitched them both, buried in Grantchester churchyard half a century ago. As the stories seem to intertwine, Alice comes to realize that her instinctive hatred of Joe''s new girlfriend may not just be due to jealousy, as she is plunged into a nightmare world of obsession, revenge, seduction - and blood.

Before the sweet delight of Chocolat, before the heady concoction that is Blackberry Wine, and before the tart pleasures of Five Quarters of the Orange, bestselling author Joanne Harris wrote Sleep, Pale Sister -- a gothic tourde-force that recalls the powerfully dark sensibility of her novel Holy Fools. Originally published in 1994 -- and never before available in the United States -- Sleep, Pale Sister is a hypnotically atmospheric story set in nineteenth century London. When puritanical artist Henry Chester sees delicate child beauty Effie, he makes her his favorite model and, before long, his bride. But Henry, volatile and repressed, is in love with an ideal. Passive, docile, and asexual, the woman he projects onto Effie is far from the woman she really is. And when Effie begins to discover the murderous depths of Henry''s hypocrisy, her latent passion will rise to the surface. Sleep, Pale Sister combines the ethereal beauty of a Pre-Raphaelite painting with a chilling high gothic tale and is a testament to Harris''s brimming cornucopia of talents. This P.S. edition features an extra 16 pages of insights into the book, including author interviews, recommended reading, and more.

When Framboise Simon returns to a small village on the banks of the Loire, the locals do not recognize her as the daughter of the infamous woman they hold responsible for a tragedy during the German occupation years ago. But the past and present are inextricably entwined, particularly in a scrapbook of recipes and memories that Framboise has inherited from her mother. And soon Framboise will realize that the journal also contains the key to the tragedy that indelibly marked that summer of her ninth year. . . .

Mado has been adrift for too long. After ten years in Paris, she returns to the small island of Le Devin, the home that has haunted her since she left. Le Devin is shaped somewhat like a sleeping woman. At her head is the village of Les Salants, while its more prosperous rival, La Houssinière, lies at her feet. Yet even though you can walk from one to the other in an hour, they are worlds apart. And now Mado is back in Les Salants hoping to reconcile with her estranged father. But what she doesn''t realize is that it is not only her father whose trust she must regain.

The New York Times bestselling author takes a riveting new direction with this richly textured, multi-layered novel of friendship, murder, revenge, and class conflict set in an upper-crust English school—as enthralling and haunting as Ian McKewan’s Atonement and Patricia Highsmith’s The Talented Mr. Ripley Audere, agere, auferre. To dare, to strive, to conquer. For generations, elite young men have attended St. Oswald’s School for Boys, groomed for success by the likes of Roy Straitley, the eccentric classics teacher who has been a revered fixture for more than 30 years. But this year, things are different. Suits, paperwork, and Information Technology rule the world, and Straitley is reluctantly contemplating retirement. He is joined in this, his 99th, term by five new faculty members, including one who—unknown to Straitley and everyone else—holds intimate and dangerous knowledge of St. Ozzie’s ways and secrets, it’s comforts and conceits. Harboring dark ties to the school’s past, this young teacher has arrived with one terrible goal: Destroy St. Oswald’s. As the new term gets underway, a number of incidents befall students and faculty alike. Beginning as small annoyances—a lost pen, a misplaced coffee mug—they soon escalate to the life threatening. With the school unraveling, only Straitley stands in the way of St. Ozzie’s ruin. But the old man faces a formidable opponent—a master player with a strategy that has been meticulously planned to the final move. A harrowing tale of cat and mouse told in alternating voices, this riveting, hypnotically atmospheric novel showcases Joanne Harris’s astonishing storytelling talent as never before.

This publication is not for sale to libraries. When an exotic stranger, Vianne Rocher, arrives in the French village of Lansquenet and opens a chocolate boutique directly opposite the church, Father Reynaud identifies her as a serious danger to his flock. Can the solemnity of the Church compare with the pagan passion of a chocolate eclair?

Seven o’clock on a Monday morning, five hundred years after the end of the world, and goblins had been at the cellar again. . . . Not that anyone would admit it was goblins. In Maddy Smith’s world, order rules. Chaos, old gods, fairies, goblins, magic, glamours–all of these were supposedly vanquished centuries ago. But Maddy knows that a small bit of magic has survived. The “ruinmark” she was born with on her palm proves it–and makes the other villagers fearful that she is a witch (though helpful in dealing with the goblins-in-the-cellar problem). But the mysterious traveler One-Eye sees Maddy’s mark not as a defect, but as a destiny. And Maddy will need every scrap of forbidden magic One-Eye can teach her if she is to survive that destiny.

''Who died?'' I said. ''Or is it a secret?'' ''My mother, Vianne Rocher.'' Seeking refuge and anonymity in the cobbled streets of Montmarre, Yanne and her daughters, Rosette and Annie, live peacefully, if not happily, above thier little chocolate shop. Nothing unusual marks them out; no red sachets hang by the door. The wind has stopped - at least for a while. Then into their lives blows Zozie de l''Alba, the lady with the lollipop shoes, and everything begins to change . . . But this new friendship is not what it seems. Ruthless, devious and seductive, Zozie de l''Alba has plans of her own - plans that will shake their world to pieces. And with everything she loves at stake, Yanne must face a difficult choice: to flee, as she has done so many times before, or to confront her most dangerous enemy . . . Herself.

In My French Kitchen bestselling author Joanne Harris, along with acclaimed food writer Fran Warde, shares her treasured collection of family recipes that has been passed down from generation to generation. All the classics are here: Quiche Lorraine, Moules Marinière, Coq au Vin, and Crème Brûlée, plus an entire chapter devoted to French chocolate, including cakes, meringues, and spiced hot chocolate.

The Place Is St Oswald S, An Old And Long-Established Boys Grammar School In The North Of England. A New Year Has Just Begun, And For The Staff And Boys Of The School, A Wind Of Unwelcome Change Is Blowing. Suits, Paperwork And Information Technology Rule The World And Roy Straitley, Latin Master, Eccentric, And Veteran Of St Oswald S, Is Finally Reluctantly Contemplating Retirement. But Beneath The Little Rivalries, Petty Disputes And Everyday Crises Of The School, A Darker Undercurrent Stirs. And A Bitter Grudge, Hidden And Carefully Nurtured For Thirteen Years, Is About To Erupt.Who Is Mole, The Mysterious Insider, Whose Cruel Practical Jokes Are Gradually Escalating Towards Violence And Perhaps, Murder? And How Can An Old And Half-Forgotten Scandal Become The Stone That Brings Down A Giant?

Joanne Harris''s bestselling novels, Chocolat, Blackberry Wine and Five-Quarters of the Orange, are affectionately known as her culinary trilogy. In them, Joanne Harris whets our appetites with some tantalisingly delicious recipes taken from her own grandmere''s recipe book. For, like Framboise, the heroine of Five-Quarters of the Orange, Joanne has family recipes which have been passed down through the generations and which she shares with us now in a mouth-watering celebration of French cuisine. From pumkin soup to Moules Mariniere, from Tarte aux cassis to Fouace Aveyronnaise (Grandmother''s festival loaf), and taking in salads, starters, fish, poultry and plenty more along the way, these are simple and stylish recipes from the heart of the French family kitchen. Illustrated with stunning integrated photographs and complemented by anecdotes from her family, past and present, The French Kitchen will be a must-have cookbook for all lovers of food and France.

Returning to the small Loire village of her childhood to run a cafe, Franboise Dartigen soon finds that hidden among her mother''s recipes are clues that will lead her to the truth of long ago.

From the bestselling author of "Chocolat" comes a novel of love and betrayal, friendship and revenge, set in 17th-century France.

Enllà del carrer principal de Les Laveuses passa el Loira serè i marronós com una serp al sol, però sota la seva superfície bellugadissa s’amaga un mar de fons mortal. En aquest indret, Framboise, una vídua reservada, posa en pràctica els seus coneixements culinaris a la creperia i deixa que la memòria jugui jocs estranys. Aquest món aparentment tranquil es veu amenaçat amb l’arribada del nebot de Framboise, un parisenc aprofitat que intenta explotar l’èxit creixent de les receptes populars que ella ha heretat de la seva mare, una dona que els habitants de Les Laveuses recorden amb menyspreu. A mesura que la sang vessada d’una tràgica infantesa en temps de guerra torna a fluir, surten a la llum els secrets de Framboise, la vídua amb un passat fictici.