This book is a little dark and mildly menacing. The characters aren’t particularly likeable but I enjoyed reading about this family with all their flaws, interspersed with sumptuous descriptions of food. Although I am sure that it’s very common in real life, I haven’t read many books featuring dysfunctional relationships between mothers and daughters. The interactions between all the characters feel very real. I think that shows the quality of Joanne Harris’s writing: she makes everything convincing and a pleasure to read about.

But ultimately this book disappointed me. I had hoped that it would be of the same calibre as the only other book by Joanne Harris that I’ve read: Gentlemen and Players, which is a deliciously dark and atmospheric mystery set in a boys’ school. Five Quarters of the Orange just doesn’t come close to that. Yes, here there also is hatred, fear and passion. Again, this is very well written. But the story itself just didn’t quite make the grade. I couldn’t help but compare it to The Book Thief, also a set during the German occupation with a young girl as narrator, which is a far more striking piece of work.

(35th in 2012)