Jigs ​& Reels

Joanne Harris - Peaches ​for Monsieur le Curé
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 which eight years ago, she opened up a chocolate shop. But returning to her old home, Vianne is completely unprepared for what she is to find there. Women veiled in black, the scent of spices and peppermint tea - and there, on the bank of the river Tannes, facing the church, a minaret.

Joanne Harris - Bársony ​és keserű mandula
Ezt ​az elragadó gyűjteményt olvasni olyan, akár a legfinomabb bonbonosdobozban válogatni a krémes, keserű, kávés vagy nugátos édességek között. Nem is csoda, hiszen a Csokoládé világhírű írónője ismét meglepetést és örömet akart szerezni rajongóinak. Történetei hol torokszorítóan érzelmesek, hol mesésen varázslatosak, hol pedig hátborzongatóak; farkasemberek, delfinnők, dacos, öreg hölgyek és erotikus bőrholmik – a Bársony és keserű mandulában a csoda szinte mindennapi, a savanyú sokszor édes, szép a rút és rút a szép, még a csábító és a meghökkentő sincs egy lépésnél távolabb egymástól. Az „édes élet” legnagyobb szakértője ismét bebizonyítja, hogy akár a szépség mítoszát, akár a hűtlenség fájdalmát, akár az időskori szerelem csodáját járja körbe, mestere a történetmesélésnek.

Joanne Harris - Runelight
Two ​girls. With new runes. And the End of the World is coming. Again. Six hundred miles apart, two girls each bear on their skin a runemark: a symbol of the Old Days when the known Worlds were ruled by the gods from their sky citadel, Asgard. Now Asgard lies in ruins, and the power of the gods has long since been destroyed. Or so everyone thinks. But nothing is lost for ever, and the gods haven't given up yet (nor stopped squabbling!) and they want the power of the runes borne by Maddy and Maggie - these new runes, which carry huge potential, their runelight shining out as a portent to the future. Soon both girls are swept into a maelstrom of cataclysmic events that are to draw them closer and closer to each other, and nearer and nearer to a horrific struggle where each must prove where their loyalty lies . . . Filled with inventive and humorous detail, trickery and treachery, carnage and lunacy, Runelight is the second title - following Runemarks - in a series of gloriously imaginative and dramatic tales about the Norse gods.

Joanne Harris - Five ​Quarters of the Orange
Beyond ​the main street of Les Laveuses runs the Loire, smooth and brown as a sunning snake - but hiding a deadly undertow beneath its moving surface. This is where Framboise, a secretive widow named after a raspberry liqueur, plies her culinary trade at the creperie - and lets memory play strange games. Into this world comes the threat of revelation as Framboise's nephew - a profiteering Parisian - attempts to exploit the growing success of the country recipes she has inherited from her mother, a woman remembered with contempt by the villagers of Les Laveuses. As the split blood of a tragic wartime childhood flows again, exposure beckons for Framboise, the widow with an invented past. Joanne Harris has looked behind the drawn shutters of occupied France to illuminate the pain, delight and loss of a life changed for ever by the uncertainties and betrayals of war.

Joanne Harris - The ​Evil Seed
Something ​inside me remembers and will not forget... When Alice Farrell is drawn to Grantchester churchyard and reads the strange inscription on Rosemary Virginia Ashley's gravestone, she feels oddly disturbed. And when former boyfriend Joe returns to Cambridge with his new girlfriend Ginny, Alice is repelled by the ethereal, lavender-eyed beauty - and is certain of her evil. Then Alice finds an old diary in Ginny's room and reads the story of Daniel Holmes, who lived in Cambridge forty years earlier, and fell under the fatal spell of Rosemary Ashley. As the two stories intertwine, Alice's suspicions about Ginny increase - until the past meets present in a terrifying climax...

Joanne Harris - Coastliners
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

Joanne Harris - Blackberry ​Wine
Everyday ​magic, he called it - the transformation of base matter into the stuff of dreams, layman's alchemy. Jay Mackintosh is trapped by memory in the old familiar landscapes of his childhood, more enticing than the present, and to which he longs to return. A bottle of home-brewed wine left to him by a long-vanished friend seems to provide both the key to an old mystery and a doorway into another world. As the unusual properties of the strange brew take effect, Jay escapes to a derelict farmhouse in the French village of Lansquenet, where a ghost from the past waits to confront him, and the reclusive Marise - haunted, lovely and dangerous - hides a terrible secret behind her closed shutters. Between them, a mysterious chemistry. Or could it be magic?

Joanne Harris - Csokoládés ​barack
A ​Csokoládé és a Csokoládécipő után a trilógia várva várt harmadik kötete! Vianne Rocher-t egy másvilágról érkezett levél Lansquenet-be, a dél-franciaországi kisvárosba vezeti, ahol nyolc éve csokoládéboltot nyitott. Minden képzeletet felülmúl, amit ott talál: fekete fátylas nők, fűszerek illata, borsmenta tea és a Saint-Jerôme templom karcsú, csontszínű tornya – egy ezüst félholddal a tetején…Nem csak az észak-afrikai bevándorlók hoztak nagy változásokat a kis közösség életébe. Reynaud atya, Vianne hajdani riválisa kegyvesztett lett és veszélyben az élete. Lehet, hogy csak Vianne képes megmenteni? „Joanne Harris illatokban és ízekben gazdag, lebilincselő szerelmi története egy elragadó világba kalauzolja az olvasót.” – Sunday Times „A Csokoládéhoz hasonlóan, ez a könyv is igazi csemege. Minden oldalát átitatják az illatok, színek és ízek anélkül, hogy túlcsordulna. A szavak elragadóak, a varázslat természetes és magától értetődő, hiszen a varázslat vagy a vallás nem más, mint az emberi lélek megértésének képessége. A Csokoládé és fátyol Harris csodálatos visszatérése.” – Literary Review

Joanne Harris - Runemarks
Maddy ​did not stir. Only her left hand moved, her fingers curling into the familiar shape that was Bjarkán, the rune of revelation. If it was a rat, Bjarkán would show it. It was not a rat. A wisp - just a wisp - of FaErie gold gleamed in the circle of her finger and thumb. Maddy pounced. Her strike was well timed. At once the creature began to struggle, and although Maddy couldn't see it, she could certainly feel it between her hands, kicking and twisting and trying to bite her. Then as she continued to hold it fast, the creature finally went limp; the shadow dropped away from it, and see saw it clearly. It - he - was not much bigger than a dog fox, with small, clever hands and wicked little teeth. Most of his body was covered in armour - pieces of plate, leather straps, half a mailshirt cut clumsily down to fit - and out of his brown, long-whiskered face, his eyes shone a bright, inhuman gold. He blinked at her twice. Then, without any warning, he shot away between her legs... Maddy touched the final rune. She spoke the cantrip. The Hill opened... Maddy Smith has always been an outsider. Born with a rusty-coloured rune on her hand - what the villagers call a ruinmark - she is scarred by this symbol of the old gods, a sign of magic. And everyone knows that magic is dangerous. Except for Maddy, who actually thinks it's rather fun. Until now. For suddenly her friend One-Eye, a rascally Outlander, wants her to open Red Horse Hill and descend into World Below - a world filled with goblins and far worse - to retrieve a relic of the old gods... Full of trickery, magic and the enchantment of the Norse myths, Runemarks is an epic fantasy adventure - richly inventive and superbly imaginative.

Joanne Harris - Blueeyedboy
...dark ​psychological thriller set in the world of the internet, where no-one is quite what they seem to be, and every taste is catered for, even the ones to which we dare not confess.

Joanne Harris - Gentlemen ​and Players
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 - Holy ​Fools
Joanne ​Harris, bestselling author of Chocolat, presents her most accomplished novel yet — an intoxicating concoction that blends theology and reason, deception and masquerade, with a dash of whimsical humor and a soupçon of sensuality. Britanny, 1610. Juliette, a one-time actress and rope dancer, is forced to seek refuge among the sisters of the abbey of Sainte Marie-de-la-mer. Reinventing herself as Soeur Auguste,Juliette makes a new life for herself and her young daughter, Fleur. But when the kindly abbess dies, Juliette's comfortable existence begins to unravel. The abbey's new leader is the daughter of a corrupt noble family, and she arrives with a ghost from Juliette's past — Guy LeMerle, a man she has every reason to fear and hate.

Joanne Harris - The ​Lollipop Shoes
(In ​the U.S.A. published as The Girl with no Shadow) For all those who loved Chocolat - Vianne is back. Seeking refuge and anonymity in the cobbled streets of Montmartre, Vianne and her daughters, Rosette and Annie, live peacefully, if not happily, above their 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, Vianne must face a difficult choice; to flee, as she has done so many times before, or to confront her most dangerous enemy ... Herself.

Sophie Hannah - The ​Fantastic Book of Everybody’s Secrets
Who ​is hiding in the bushes outside a young man's house? Why does the same stranger keep appearing in the background of a family's photographs? What makes a woman stand mesmerised by two children in a school playground, children she's never met but whose names she knows well? All will be revealed in this collection of stories.

Joanne Harris - Chocolat
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 - especially as it is the beginning of Lent, the traditional season of self-denial. War is declared as the priest denounces the newcomer's wares as the ultimate sin. Suddenly Vianne's shop-cum-café means that there is somewhere for secrets to be whispered, grievances to be aired, dreams to be tested. But Vianne's plans for an Easter Chocolate Festival divide the whole community in a conflict that escalates into a 'Church not Chocolate' battle. As mouths water in anticipation, can the solemnity of the Church compare with the pagan passion of a chocolate éclair?

Jane Austen - Love ​and Friendship and other early works
This ​is a collection of short stories, drama, humor, and other works written by Jane Austen at least a decade before her major novels. It is a series of letters and other works that Austen wrote, and they show a free spirited Austen, quite unlike her formula books that came later. As a read this is not what one would call great literature, but it is worthwhile to see a young Jane Austen writing without constraints, and writing as a young woman years before her fame.

Yann Martel - Life ​of Pi
After ​the tragic sinking of a cargo ship, one solitary lifeboat remains bobbing on the wild, blue Pacific.The crew of the surviving vessel consists of a hyena, a zebra (with a broken leg), a female orang-utan, a 450-pound Royal Bengal tiger and Pi - a 16-year-old Indian boy.The scene is set for one of the most extraordinary pieces of literary fiction of recent years. Yann Martel's Life of Pi is a transformative novel, a dazzling work of imagination that will delight and astound readers in equal measure. It is a triumph of storytelling and a tale that will, as one character puts it, make you believe in God.

Angela Carter - The ​Bloody Chamber and Other Stories
Fairy ​tales retold and interwoven by a master of seductive, luminous storytelling

Roald Dahl - The ​Collected Short Stories of Roald Dahl
Roald ​Dahl's parents were Norwegian, but he was born in Llandaff, Glamorgan, in 1916 and educated at Rapton School. On the outbreak of the Second World War, he enlisted in the RAF at Nairobi. He was severely wounded after joining a fighter squadron in Lybia, but later saw service as a fighter pilot in Greece and Syria. In 1942 he went to Washington as Assistant Air Attaché, which was where he started to write, and then was transferred to Intelligence, ending the war as a wing commander. His first twelve short stories, based on his wartime experiences, were originally published in leading American magazines and afterwards as a book, _Over to You_. All of his highly acclaimed stories have been widely translated and have become bestsellers all over the world. Anglia Television dramatized a selection of his short stories under the title _Tales of the Unexpected_. Among his other publications are two volumes of autobiography, _Boy_ and _Going Solo_, his much-praised novel, _My Uncle Oswald_, and _Roald Dahl's Book of Ghost Stories_, of which he was editor. During the last year of his life he compiled a book of anecdotes and recipes with his wife, Felicity, which was published by Penguin in 1996 as _Roald Dahl's Cookbook_ He is one of the most successful and well known of all children's writers all over the world. These include _James and the Giant Peach_, _Charlie and the Chocolate Factory_, _The Magic Finger_, _Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator_, _Fantastic Mr Fox_, _The Twits_, _The Witches_, winner of the 1983 Whitbread Award, _The BFG_ and _Matilda_. Roald Dahl died in November in 1990. _The Times_ described him as 'one of the most widely read and influential writers of our generation' and wrote in its obituary: 'Children loved his stories and made him their favourite ... They will be classics of the future.' In 2000 Roald Dahl was voted the nation's favourite author in the World Book Day poll.

Joanne Harris - Ötnegyed ​narancs
Les ​Laveuses apró falu a Loire mentén. Ide tér vissza Framboise, hogy élete végét szülőfalujában élje le. Nevét, kilétét gondosan titkolja, kemény munkával rendbe hozza a régi házat és a gazdaságot, kis vendéglőt is nyit, amely hamarosan közkedveltté válik. Visszatérése azonban felkavarja benne a faluval kapcsolatos gyermekkori emlékeit. A múltbéli szál a német megszállás ideje. A lázadó természetű, akkor kilencéves Framboise özvegyen maradt anyja kemény kézzel vezeti a gazdaságot, neveli gyermekeit, akik újságokért, ritka élelmiszerekért, rúzsokért apró kis füleseket, megfigyeléseket szállítanak a németeknek. Sőt, egyikükbe, a fiatal Tomas Leibnizbe Framboise lassan bele is szeret. Háború idején a falu mindezt nem nézi jó szemmel, s a család körül lassan lincshangulat alakul ki… A titkolt múltra a jelen drámai eseményei közepette fény derül, mígnem Framboise kénytelen leleplezni önmagát, és vállalni a múltat. A Csokoládé és a Szederbor szerzője, Joanne Harris e kötetében is bámulatos drámai erővel juttatja el a történet két szálát a csúcsponthoz. Ételek, italok, az érzékekre ható világ költői leírásában itt sincs hiány, de a hangsúly ebben a regényben nem a csodán van, hanem a szenvedélyen, a szenvedéssel teli út végén váró megbékélésen.