Chocolat, Paperback/Joanne Harris

Chocolate and Lent go head-to-head in this original and imaginative novel set in France. The opening of a chocolate boutique in a small village by an exotic stranger stirs religious and culinary passions that divide a community. Film rights have been sold, and promotion will include a tie-in with a chocolate manufacturer. "Makes your mouth water... a subtle and brilliant novel" Daily Telegraph. Sleep, Pale Sister and The Evil Seed are Harris's two previous novels, and Blackberry Wine, the new Doubleday hardback, is also published this month.