- Hardcover: 368 pages
- Publisher: William Morrow & Company; First Edition First Printing edition (Sep 2002)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0060198125
- ISBN-13: 978-0060198121
- Product Dimensions: 22.6 x 15.5 x 3.3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (33 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 2,855,940 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Coastliners
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
After three novels which centred around gastronomic pleasures Joanne Harris's new book, Coastliners, focuses on more astringent joys. Sea, gritty sand and adverse weather conditions replace Chocolat, Blackberry Wine and Five Quarters of the Orange. Set on a small, blustery fishing island off the coast of France, it tells the story of Mado, a young woman who returns to her childhood home to find the local community torn apart by family feuds, bad tides and murky political machinations.
Passionate, stubborn Mado, whose "head is full of rocks" tries to save the livelihoods of the villagers of Les Salants by urging them to work together to save the beach from erosion, both natural and man-made. The villagers, written with endearing panache by Harris, are an eccentric, curmudgeonly bunch, who eventually cooperate with the help of Flynn, a charismatic stranger with a shady past. He's not the only man of mystery in Mado's life; her father, taciturn Grosjean, has a secretive heart that's as "prickly and tightly layered as an artichoke", and local, wealthy businessman Brismand also seems to be hiding something. Mado does her best to unravel these mysteries, while attempting to keep a hold on her own sense of self in the claustrophobic, close community. It's not only the shore line that takes a buffeting. The villagers and the island are so vividly described that it's impossible not to become engrossed in Mado's story. Coastliners is a book about longing to belong, and Joanne Harris charts that emotional voyage compellingly. --Eithne Farry --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
The author of that amazing bestseller Chocolat (now a film) has come up with an accomplished novel about an island community. Mado, daughter of the boat builder Prasteau, returns to the island of Le Devin in northern France following the death of her mother. The island is divided into two warring factions, La Houssiniere on one side and Les Salants on the other, poorer side. Mado belongs to Les Salants, and decides to build a massive reef which (it is hoped) will divert the tide and help retain the beach. This stirs up all sorts of problems, including an old tragedy. On top of all this, Mado falls for a flame-haired stranger. It is a tale full of good things and the writing is hugely imaginative. A wonderful read and a truly powerful story.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
34 of 37 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
It is true that my full enjoyment of this novel was somewhat limited due to the fact that I originally bought a cheap copy from a second hand book shop and half way through found a printing error had substituted the middle three chapters for a repetition of the first three. I was not happy! However I believe it does say something for the story that I went straight out and bought a complete, full priced version to catch up on the parts that I had missed.
Coastliners is good. There is no doubt about that. The plot is strong as are the characters. Anyone who read the first few chapters would be compelled to read to the end. Joanne Harris' empathy with the town or village community is particularly moving in this story. She has a remarkable ability to portray a small, secure yet claustrophobic community, she does it so completely that by the end of the book, you could recognise each character if they were walking dwon the street. At the same time as drawing on caricature so well that you recognise immediately the type of person she means, yet she has a sensitivity that draws deeper so that the reader can identify with the character as an individual.
For my own reading of this novel, I do feel that in concentrating on twist and turns in the plot, and the differing relationships between the characters, Harris has lost something of the succulent imagery that has become her trade mark. Strong flavours enhance her earlier stories, sweets, sours, fruit and wine, natural flavours that work with instinct and overpower the senses. Chocolat, Blackberry Wine and Five Quarters of the Orange are a dazzling gastronomic feast, tastes and smells vivid. Coastliners leave you hungry.
While I really did enjoy Coastliners and I could not put it down till I had found out the destinies of each character, afterward I still found something lacking. I have always idenified with Harris weaving the physical pleasures, eating and drinking, smells and scents, together with the emotional turmoils of year to year life. Coastliners deals with the ups and downs of life, without weaving the heady imagery of her earlier books. For the time being, Blackberry Wine will remain my favourite Joanne Harris novel, the images and characters through that story stayed with me a long time and for me it is the most potent and appealing of her novels (though I do think that may have something to do with the fact that it is narrated by a bottle of wine!).
22 of 24 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Joanne Harris is fast becoming an archetypical writer. Coastlines is set in yet another French village, with sturdy local characters, such as a silent father and a flamboyant love interest. Village gossip, secrets & tragedies from the past its all in there. The bad part of the novel is the first half: you start to think you've read it all before, and the story is not yet gripping or convincing. The silent father is annoying, and the narrator is against-the-villager-for-their-own better a little too early. You wonder why she bothers with all this. Some dialogues seem a little forced.The good part is the second half when the plot starts to unravel. The story gains some speed, but most characters remain a little flat. The plot, however, is an excellent one.All in all, though this is a classical Harris, it is not her best. Characters (especially the narrator) are less convincing, the story is little too made up (fooling the villagers with a miracle is a little too much for 2003) and the setting somehow doesn't come alive as much as in her other novels. Harrris style remains fluent, easy too read and highly entertaining. If you're a fan -> a must have. If not, stick to "Oranges".
29 of 32 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I have never done this reviewing thing before, but felt compelled to comment on this novel, which has thus far not received entirely favourable reviews. I found that the book, as has been mentioned, differed from her previous works, which cannot be an entirely negative characteristic. Previous reviewers have ranged from critcising the similarity of her works to criticising this book for not continuing the culinary lineage of works like 'The five Quarters of the Orange' or 'Chocolat'.
Harris has indeed shifted her literary narrative from the externalised heady evocations of smell and taste to a more internalised style, focusing through the perspective of the protagonist Mado. This shift in style is managed with the kind of ease and beautiful style readers of Harris' previous work have come to expect.
It is lucky that the publishers chose to put blank pages between the parts of this book, as otherwise my sleep patterns of the last three days would have been seriously affected! Harris writes with an amazing flow, which I did not feel to be broken by the French names, causing the pages to fly by as the reader is absorbed into the island world of le Devin.
Her narrative moves in swells and dips like those of the sea she depicts in this novel, and her artistic imagery is similar to Mado's brooding, thoughtful pictures. Her supporting cast is beautifully and lovingly portrayed, as are the surroundings, and, having finished the book, I feel as if I have recently returned from a visit to a small french island, and am eagerly awaiting my next voyage to Harris' France.
Harris has indeed shifted her literary narrative from the externalised heady evocations of smell and taste to a more internalised style, focusing through the perspective of the protagonist Mado. This shift in style is managed with the kind of ease and beautiful style readers of Harris' previous work have come to expect.
It is lucky that the publishers chose to put blank pages between the parts of this book, as otherwise my sleep patterns of the last three days would have been seriously affected! Harris writes with an amazing flow, which I did not feel to be broken by the French names, causing the pages to fly by as the reader is absorbed into the island world of le Devin.
Her narrative moves in swells and dips like those of the sea she depicts in this novel, and her artistic imagery is similar to Mado's brooding, thoughtful pictures. Her supporting cast is beautifully and lovingly portrayed, as are the surroundings, and, having finished the book, I feel as if I have recently returned from a visit to a small french island, and am eagerly awaiting my next voyage to Harris' France.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
A good read with twists and turns
A young woman returns after her mother's illness and death to the island of her birth. The island is off the French coast, tiny and idiosyncratic; the environment and economy is... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Avid reader
Atmospheric and emotive
I could read Joanne Harries all day. It's not simply her plots, or her characters, or her amazing setting of the scene, but also her marvellous prose. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Hotdiggety
coastliners
Love everything from the pen of Joanne Harris, some more, some less, this book falls in the middle, neither loved nor unloved.... Read more
Published on 30 Oct 2009 by SuperWomen
Nice little story, but painfully slow
A young woman, Mado, returns to the island of her birth following the death of her mother in Paris. She has been scraping a living as a painter, but the small, split community of... Read more
Published on 25 Oct 2009 by Lance Mitchell
Family Ties and Traumas
There is a structure to this novel which is reminiscent of that of "Chocolat", so you know how it will end: with a firm romantic uncertainty. That's part of the Harris charm. Read more
Published on 3 Nov 2008 by M. J. Saxton
Deja vu; deja vu; deja vu
Starting to read this (thankfully library copy) book reminded me why I had stopped reading Joanne Harris. Read more
Published on 25 Mar 2008 by Lady Fancifull
Reliable as ever...
You can't really go wrong with Joanne Harris. This is another page-turning, totally engaging tale with plenty of plot twists. Read more
Published on 18 Aug 2007 by daisyrock
so sweet, so enchanted
Whenever I read a Joanna Harris thing, its the same... small villages, modern times and the necessity to change, strangers and people who come back and change something... Read more
Published on 9 July 2007 by Tatjana Peskir
Fab
I really enjoyed this. It's a little slow in places, but the wonderful descriptive narrative keeps you going and you become so involved in the characters, you cannot put it... Read more
Published on 27 Feb 2006 by SL Smith
Lightweight!
The story lacks the depth and originality that J.Harris demonstrated in some of her other works. I had the feeling that this book was written just to publish something new . Read more
Published on 7 Oct 2005 by Rachel Molcho
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