Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Thirty-one: Five Quarters of the Orange - Joanne Harris

Framboise Simon returns to the village where she grew up but not as her true identity.  Memories of a German soldier who was killed there haunts her.  As she reads through a book of recipes her mother left her, she begins to figure out different pieces of the puzzling memories.

This book is told as a remembrance of events in the past by Framboise to her adult daughters and one time lover.  The memories highlight how German soldiers would gain trust of the locals to gain information during the war.  The oranges referenced in the title refer to the orange slices Framboise would use to cause her mother to get migraines. These migraines would allow Framboise and her siblings to play and explore unsupervised.

This book was well written and went between the present day and the past seamlessly. I like how food was interwoven into the plot as well.   

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