Refreshing, heartening and uplifting reading. It's only a matter of not losing hope completely and let others surprise you, with one foot in the Earth and the other one suspended in the air, letting the wind blow where it has to. I'll stick to the magic and a bit of luck, as Jay says. Magic, wine, faith or simply luck and coincidence. This is a book about haunted lives, unfinished stories and the chance to change your own life and atone for your past mistakes. Guided by a kind of Joe's ghost, Jay leaves London and moves to a little rural village in France where he buys an abandoned farm and where he starts writing again, inspired by his mysterious neighbour, Marisa. Home brewed wine made by Joe takes unusual importance in the present time of the story, because it's only when Jay drinks it that he finds the courage to change what makes him unhappy.

The novel moves forward and backwards in time, and the reader is able to know young Jay, when he meets Joe, an eccentric old man who leaves a deep impression in lonely Jay, becoming his special friend and his secret hideaway. Jay seems to have lost inspiration and faith in the magic of life, as if all these feelings had been spent in that successful novel.

The story of Jay Mackintosh, a 37 years old writer, famous because of an only novel written fifteen years ago. My first novel by the author of Chocolat and I have to say I enjoyed it far more than expected. She also spends too much time on Twitter plays flute and bass guitar in a band first formed when she was 16 and works from a shed in her garden at her home in Yorkshire. Her hobbies are listed in Who's Who as 'mooching, lounging, strutting, strumming, priest-baiting and quiet subversion'. She is an honorary Fellow of St Catharine's College, Cambridge, and in 2022 was awarded an OBE by the Queen.

In 2000, her 1999 novel CHOCOLAT was adapted to the screen, starring Juliette Binoche and Johnny Depp.

She has also written a DR WHO novella for the BBC, has scripted guest episodes for the game ZOMBIES, RUN!, and is currently engaged in a number of musical theatre projects as well as developing an original drama for television. Her work is extremely diverse, covering aspects of magic realism, suspense, historical fiction, mythology and fantasy. Joanne Harris is an Anglo-French author, whose books include fourteen novels, two cookbooks and many short stories.

Blackberry wine by joanne harris