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When Grosjean’s estranged daughter Mado returns to Le Devin, a tiny island caught like a crab in the shallow seas of northern France, she brings with her an air of energy and change that ruffles the crusty local fisherman. Divided squarely into two warring communities, the people from La Houssinière on the near side and those from Les Salants on the far side, the islanders’ traditional feuds and superstitions persist. More menacing is the powerful Brismand, whose ruthless interests threaten the very survival of Les Salants, the community to which Mado belongs.
In enterprising spirit, Mado arranges to build a huge reef diverting the tide that has been gradually shifting the Salannais’ beach towards their rivals, the Houssins, on the other side of the island, and steals it back. In doing so, she sparks off a chain of events that brings not only hope to the dying Salannais community, but also revelations of a past tragedy that still haunts the elderly Grosjean. Mado is determined to find out what plagues her mute father, and to stop the cunning Brismand whose business plans threaten her family’s land. But her head is turned by the attractive, free-spirited Flynn. How far can she trust this flame-haired stranger, who claims he is without roots, yet whose connections with the island seem to run so deep?
Inspired by the island Joanne Harris used to visit as a child, good battles against evil in this tale of bitter poetry that proves no man is ever an island. Rich with coastal imagery and smells, its twists and turns are salty and powerful, and utterly compelling.
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Joanne Harris is the author of the Whitbread-shortlisted Chocolat (made into a major film starring Juliette Binoche), Blackberry Wine, Five Quarters of the Orange, Coastliners, Holy Fools, Jigs & Reels, Sleep Pale Sister, Gentlemen & Players and, with Fran Warde, The French Kitchen: A Cookbook and The French Market: More Recipes from a French Kitchen. She lives in Huddersfield, Yorkshire, with her husband and daughter.
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