It has been nine years since Vianne Rocher and her young daughter Anouk first arrived in Lansquenet, France, to spellbind the local populace with her exotic chocolates and mystical ways. This summer author Joanne Harris finally published the sequel!
The Girl with No Shadow finds Vianne and Anouk in the Montmartre district of Paris in the present day. Their little family has grown with the addition of Rosette who, despite her 4 years, speaks only in sign language and seems to have strongly inherited the family gift for magic. Vianne has grown weary of the Changing Wind that continually blows her and her girls from place to place, so she has resolved to suppress her magical skills and live like "ordinary" folk in order to hide from the Wind and Kindly Ones who come to call in their debts. Anouk chafes under her mother's "ordinariness" and resents not being able to use her natural gifts.
However, when a not-so-kindly (and also magical) stranger arrives and begins to insinuate herself into their lives, Vianne and Anouk must decide whether to stand up for who they truly are or try to be like everyone else and blow away with the wind.
This book is best read in sequence, so if you haven't read Chocolat, pick that one up first. If you like character-driven women's fiction with a glimmer of magical realism, this one's for you. Read-alikes include Sarah Addison Allen (Garden Spells, The Sugar Queen), Alice Hoffman (Practical Magic, The Third Angel), and Laura Esquivel (Like Water for Chocolate).
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