Joanne Harris

Since she was a little girl, the wind has dictated every move Vianne Rocher has made, buffeting her from place to place, from the small French village of Lansquenet-sous-Tannes to the crowded streets of Paris. Cloaked in a new identity, that of widow Yanne Charbonneau, she opens a chocolaterie on a small Montmartre street, determined to still the wind at last and keep her daughters, Anouk and the baby, Rosette, safe. Her new home above the chocolate...

Beautiful, mysterious Vianne Rocher and her young daughter arrive in Lansquenet-sous-Tannes at the start of the Lenten season where she proceeds to set up a chocolate shop, much to the chagrin of the local priest.

Sixty-five-year-old Framboise Simon, hiding her true identity, returns to the small town of her youth where she opens a cafe and discovers, hidden in her mother's book of recipes, the true story of the terrible tragedy that took place during the German occupation decades earlier--an event that resulted in her mother being driven from the village.

Love not often, but forever" is an adage with dangerous implications for Juliette, a gypsy acrobat in 17th-century France who strives to balance her wild yearnings with her hard-won wisdom.

After thirty years at St. Oswald's Grammar in North Yorkshire, England, Latin master Roy Straitley has seen all kinds of boys come and go. Each class has its own clowns, rebels, and underdogs -- all who hold a special place in the old teacher's heart. But every so often there's a boy who doesn't quite fit the mold. A troublemaker. A boy with darkness inside. With insolvency and academic failure looming, a new headmaster arrives at the venerable school,...