This book was recommended to me as a great holiday read by a very dear friend. Having read and loved Chocolat, I eagerly began this novel, which is set in a small village in France in contemporary times, segueing back to the German occupation during World War II as well.
The heroine is the feisty, secretive and hard Framboise Simon, a widow in her sixties and brilliant cook whose gifts in the kitchen become renown not only in her little village but also, much to her chagrin, beyond. A loner (her daughters are adult with their own children and lives), who has returned to the village in which she grew up, but with a new identity, Framboise hopes that her age and the fading memories of those around her will keep her presence and real self secret. Soon, however, relatives and the media are knocking down her door to not only gain access to her marvellous recipes, but the woman who creates them, a woman who eschews extended family, attention and the riches it could bring her, preferring to remain hidden so she can keep her past and the terrible burden she carries buried.
No-one really understand why she desires anonymity, but it becomes evident that it’s something to do with her mother, the infamous Mirabelle Dartigen (who, during the occupation, did something so terrible, it condemned the family to exile and notoriety), as well as the beautiful scrapbook she inherited from her. It’s a book filled with recipes and encoded messages and, as the story proceeds, it becomes the key to unlocking the past and the terrible incident that changed everyone’s lives.
This is a beautifully written book that is so raw and honest in its dealings with mothers, daughters and families and the painful histories we create and which we sometimes pass on like character traits, lumbering the next generation with old problems and idiosyncrasies instead of facing and dealing with them at the time. It explores the delicate balance that must be preserved, the fragility of communication, the strength of love and hate and how close these two emotions really are. It also maps the getting of wisdom and how time accrues for those who self-reflect and ponder its own rewards.
Framboise as an old woman has softened in some respects, but it’s herself she’s hardest upon, and no more so than when the story moves back to the time when she was nine years old and the Germans and later, Nazis, came to her village, remaining, demanding and integrating into parts of the community – but for what purpose? The youngest of three, with a widowed mother who works hard to make ends meet, ‘Boise, we learn, is most like her mother: intelligent, manipulative, not above lying to get her own way, but also incredibly brave and loyal. Reflecting back on what and who she was and did all those years ago, as well as her siblings, the story is as much a painful memoir of childhood and a specific point in history as it is about the damage secrets can wreak upon the soul.
But as ‘Boise learns, the past co-exists with the present and it’s only by coming to terms with one that you can heal the other – and there is only one way to do both.
A haunting, delicious book, this one will resonate long after the last page.
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- Reviewed in the United States on September 13, 2014
- Reviewed in the United States on August 28, 2021
Top reviews from other countries
- Elizabeth HollandReviewed in Australia on July 29, 2015
I fell in love with this book
