Five Quarters of the Orange (original 2001; edition 2002)

by Joanne Harris

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3,949	82	3,088	(3.75)	1 / 293
When Framboise Simon returns to a small village on the banks of the Loire, the locals do not recognize her as the daughter of the infamous woman they hold responsible for a tragedy during the German occupation years ago. But the past and present are inextricably entwined, particularly in a scrapbook of recipes and memories that Framboise has inherited from her mother. And soon Framboise will realize that the journal also contains the key to the tragedy that indelibly marked that summer of her ninth year. . . .… (more)

▾Book information

Member:	slipperybins
Title:	Five Quarters of the Orange
Authors:	Joanne Harris
Info:	Harper Perennial (2002), Edition: Reprint, Paperback
Collections:	Your library
Rating:
Tags:	fiction

Work Information

Five Quarters of the Orange by Joanne Harris (2001)

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	Orange January/July: Five Quarters of the Orange by Joanne Harris	2 unread / 2	neverlistless, October 2011

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▾Member reviews

English (80) Dutch (2) All languages (82)

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Showing 1-5 of 80 (next | show all)

Slow starting but story is entertwining and deep. Good read

bentstoker | Jan 26, 2024 |

I wish they had half star ratings here. I would give it a 3.5 almost a four. It was a good book and Id recommened it to anyone. I loved the relationship with food and smells as memories. The mother daughter relationships was one I wish had been explored more. (

)

MsTera | Oct 10, 2023 |

A look back at an anything but innocent childhood along the Loire in WWII. Framboise is the youngest of three children of a war widow and is involved with her older siblings in interactions with a young German soldier who charms and manipulates everyone securing information used not for the military but for personal gain. Combined with their unstable mother ruthlessly manipulated by Framboise the situation becomes entirely unstable. In the retrospective it is her nephew's journalist wife who wants to write a book about what happened whereas Framboise wants to maintain the secrets she has kept for over half a century. I felt the ending was the weakest part of story and didn't do it any favors. (

)

quondame | Mar 10, 2023 |

4/27/22

laplantelibrary | Apr 27, 2022 |

Ok, I checked like 5 pages of reviews and no one ever mentions that, so maybe it's just me going crazy. But this book is full of discrepancies or whatever the word is.

Page 35: And though she only ever seems to refer to her children by abbreviation - R-C, Cass and Fra - my father is never mentioned. Never.

Then, page 50:. 'Yannick says he saw Old Mother today', she writes.

What the..?

Next example, page 174:
'I'm sorry', she said. 'This was never meant to be about money'.
'Then what on earth was all that -'
Laure interrupted: 'There was a book'
'No! Never!' My voice rose like a red kite in the little room.

So you see - they cleared the matter out, Framboise is shocked and infuriated, how dare they ask for the album!
And then, page 207:

Laure gave me a broad, hateful smile of dislike. 'Is that what you thought we wanted, Mamie? Your bit of money? Oh really!'
'I know what you want. My mother's recipes. I won't give them to you'.
I realised that it wasn't just recipes she wanted.
'Mirabelle Dartigen's album', said Laure gently.
'No', I whispered. 'No!'

Surprise! Not about the money! Wow! Let's be shocked again!

Finally, page 310:
Well, Mother didn't give him what you'd call a warm welcome. Either way, he didn't come back.

Page 324:
Raphael called to see Mother again.

So did he come back or didn't he?

I seriously wanted to throw the book out of the window.

Please someone explain to me where am I mistaken? How is it all logical? I want to believe it is, and the problem is just me reading in my not-native language. (

)

alissee | Dec 8, 2021 |

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▾Other authors

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Author name	Role	Type of author	Work?	Status
Harris, Joanne	—	primary author	all editions	confirmed
Alioǧlu, Suzan Cenani	Translator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Aničić, Martina	Translator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Arguilé, Marta	Translator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Breuer, Charlotte	Translator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Christensen, Camilla	Translator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Grandi, Laura	Translator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Hultman, Jan	Translator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Karhulahti, Sari	Translator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Kut︠s︡arova-Levi… Magdalena	Translator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Löfvendahl, Annika H.	Translator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Nejedlá, Marcela	Translator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Oikonomou, Kaitē	Translator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Pasierska, Hanna	Translator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Roura, Maria	Translator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Sever, Savina	Translator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Short-Payen, Jeannette	Translator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Song, Ŭn-gyŏng	Translator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Szűr-Szabó, Katalin	Translator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Vré, Monique de	Translator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Yotam, Adi	Translator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed

▾Series and work relationships

Belongs to Publisher Series

Gallimard, Folio (4005)

Is contained in

Five Quarters of the Orange | Coastliners by Joanne Harris

Five Quarters of the Orange | Blackberry Wine | Chocolat by Joanne Harris

▾Awards and Honors

Awards

Women's Prize for Fiction (Longlist – 2002)

Distinctions

LiveLib Rating (2001)

Notable Lists

100 лучших книг по версии журнала "Marie Claire"

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▾Common Knowledge

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Canonical title

Five Quarters of the Orange

Original title

Five quarters of the orange

Alternative titles

Original publication date

People/Characters

Important places

Important events

World War II, German Occupation of France (1940 | 1944)

World War II (1939 | 1945)

Related movies

Epigraph

Dedication

To my granfather, Georges Payen, who was there.

First words

When my mother died, she left the farm to my brother, Cassis, the fortune in the wine cellar to my sister, Reine-Claude, and to me the youngest, her album, and a two-liter jar containing a single black Perigord truffle, large as a tennis ball, suspended in sunflower oil, that, when uncorked, still releases the rich dank perfume of the forest floor.

Quotations

Last words

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Disambiguation notice

Publisher's editors

Blurbers

Original language

Canonical DDC/MDS

Canonical LCC

▾References

References to this work on external resources.

Wikipedia in English (1)

Five Quarters of the Orange

▾Book descriptions

When Framboise Simon returns to a small village on the banks of the Loire, the locals do not recognize her as the daughter of the infamous woman they hold responsible for a tragedy during the German occupation years ago. But the past and present are inextricably entwined, particularly in a scrapbook of recipes and memories that Framboise has inherited from her mother. And soon Framboise will realize that the journal also contains the key to the tragedy that indelibly marked that summer of her ninth year. . . .

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Book description

It has taken me fifty-five years to begin...The war is vividly remembered in Les Laveuses. There are people here who still don't speak to each other. My mother is an evil legend here. There are so many thing for you to understand. Why my mother did what she did. Why we hid the truth for so long. ANd why I'm telling my story now... In this haunted novel, Harris weaves a powerful tale of tragedy, secrets, and the relationship between a daughter and her mother. As a child, Framboise Dartigen and her family were driven from their small Loire village because of a tragedy that took place during the German occupation-an event that still haunts the town. Now the adult Framboise will find the terrible truth of that long-ago time hidden among the newspaper clipping, herbal cures, and cherished recipes that fill the pages of the scrapbook her mother has bequeathed to her. (from back of book)

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