Jay Mackintosh is a 37-year-old has-been writer from London. Fourteen years have passed since hisfirst novel, Jackapple Joe, won the Prix Goncourt. His only happiness comesfrom dreaming about the golden summers of his boyhood that he spent in the company of an eccentric vintner who was the inspiration of Jay's debut novel, but who one day mysteriously vanished. Under the strange effects of a bottle ofJoe's '75 Special, Jay decides to purchase a derelict yet promising château in Lansquenet-sous-Tannes. There, a ghost from his past waits to confront him, and his new neighbour, the reclusive Marise - haunted, lovely and dangerous - hidesa terrible secret behind her closed shutters. Between them, there seems to be amysterious chemistry. Or could it be magic?
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(Doubleday Canada, 9 April 2002, first published 28 September 1999, paperback, 336 pages, bought from a charity shop, Popsugar 2018 Reading Challenge, a book with a fruit or vegetable in the title)
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First up, it took me more than half of this brilliant book to realise its set in the same French village as Chocolat. Buy a clue already. I read this book in small chunks during my ten minute commute to and from work and it took just four days. It would surprise you just how much you can actually read in such a short time. Blackberry Wine is another great novel from one of my favourite writers. I loved it. I really liked Jay, sort of a lost soul, caught between childhood dreams and memories of good times and the often harsh reality of being an adult. The book doesn't have a linear narrative and moves back and forth between Jay's current life in France and his childhood and endearing friendship with Joe. Blackberry Wine is full of nostalgia, hope and love. What a cracking book!
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