Books

Anouk, the delightful child in the 1997 novel Chocolat, and her mother, Vianne, return in this new, darker confection. It's a contemporary fairy tale that includes identity theft, preadolescent angst, a special-needs child, and a proposed marriage of convenience, as well as chocolate truffles. Author Joanne Harris calls this book "a continuation," rather than a sequel to the one that was a popular movie starring Juliette Binoche and Johnny Depp.

In The Girl with No Shadow, five years have transpired since Chocolat ended. Mother and daughter live in Paris, above a chocolate shop in Montmartre. Vianne has given up magic, changed her name to Yanne, and left her true love, Roux, behind. Instead of colorful, gypsylike attire, she wears black so she will not stand out. In addition to Anouk, there is 4-year-old Rosette, who cannot yet talk and may be autistic.

All that keeps the single mother and her children afloat is the "generosity" of their middle-aged landlord Thierry, who has fallen for Yanne and wants to marry her. Anouk, called Annie, has started secondary school, where mean girls persecute her for being different and wearing the wrong clothes.

Into this tense world strolls Zozie de l'Alba, a lively young woman in lollipop-red heels with a talent for Mexican witchcraft.

In time structure, The Girl With No Shadow resembles Chocolat. That novel covered a liturgical season from Lent to Easter, even as this one goes from Halloween to Christmas. And as before, there is more than one narrator. By manipulating point of view, the author keeps the reader's sense of reality shifting, from Zozie to Yanne to Annie and back again.

The theme is good versus evil, though it's sometimes hard to tell which is which. Zozie is the first narrator. She immediately lets the reader know that her intentions are far from honorable, though it will take others longer to discover that. Part witch, she supports herself by stealing identities, and she's left a trail of them behind her. Her passion is to steal lives, and it's pretty clear that Yanne and Annie will be her next targets.

Much of what Zozie does is helpful, even good. She makes the little shop prosper. She encourages Yanne to make her special chocolates again, and brings the shop's odd customers together into a warm family. And under her tutelage, Annie learns how to hold her own against the mean girls. It's hilarious to see how easily these young schoolyard manipulators can be manipulated with the help of a little witchery.

Questions haunt the book and move the plot forward. Will Yanne marry Thierry? Or will she go back to Roux? Will Annie leave her mother to go with Zozie? Will Yanne discover a hidden identity for herself, and meet her true mother at last? Will the wind blow them all out of Montmartre and onto a new adventure? There's not a whole lot of suspense, but following the ins and outs of the book is still a pleasure.

The title suggests a person who has sold her soul to the devil. It's pretty clear by the end of the book whom that might be. But readers will be drawn to her, nonetheless, as one generally is to temptation.

Anne Morris, a member of the National Book Critics Circle, lives in Austin.

Joanne Harris

(William Morrow, $24.95) PLAN YOUR LIFE

Joanne Harris will speak at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Dallas Museum of Art, 1717 N. Harwood St., as part of Arts & Letters Live. Tickets $22-$37. 214-922-1818.

ARCHIVES: Search for more stories on this and other topics | Search Tips

SUBSCRIBE: Get The Dallas Morning News delivered to your home