Joanne Harris, VIANNE: A Novel

Summary

Podcast Episode Summary

Podcast: Totally Booked with Zibby
Host: Zibby Owens
Guest: Joanne Harris, author of Vianne: A Novel
Date: September 11, 2025

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Episode Overview

In this episode, Zibby Owens sits down with acclaimed author Joanne Harris to discuss her latest novel, Vianne, a prequel to the international bestseller Chocolat. The conversation delves into themes of grief, transformation, memory, the magic of chocolate, and the creative process. Harris shares personal insights on writing, neurodiversity, and finding one’s authentic voice—anchored throughout with the sensual, evocative language that characterizes her books.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

Introducing Vianne and Its Connection to Chocolat

[04:08]

• Joanne Harris explains that Vianne is an origin story, set six years before Chocolat and detailing how the character Fian (Vianne) Rocher becomes who she is.
• The novel explores Vianne's early years: freshly grieving her mother's death, alone, newly pregnant in Marseille, homeless, and not yet called “Vianne.”
• Quote: “This is in many ways the book to start with if you're new to Fian Rocher and her story, because it precedes Chocolat by 6 years and it is Fian's origin story.” — Joanne Harris [04:33]

The Many Faces of Grief

[05:36]

• Harris writes beautifully about grief—not just Vianne’s, but also the grief harbored by Louis, the bistro owner, who lost his wife 20 years prior.
• Quote: “Grief is love with nowhere to go. That's what my mother used to say. And there is love inside him. It's like a seam of something bright between two layers of bitter rock. But he has learned to live with his grief. At least it is familiar. Love, on the other hand, is not love and its dangerous sibling, hope.” — Joanne Harris, as read by Zibby Owens [05:57]
• Harris tapped into her own experience of losing her father while writing the book, aiming to show how loss shapes understanding and connection.

Memory, Presence, and the Voices of the Lost

[08:10]

• Discussions explore how memory and cooking keep the dead alive, with Margaux’s recipe book serving as a voice in Louis and Vianne's paths.
• Both Vianne’s mother and Louis’s wife influence Vianne, each imparting different messages about attachment and freedom.
• Quote: “Memory, at least, helps to bring the dead to life in one way or the other.” — Joanne Harris [08:10]

Community, Acceptance, and Chocolate As Magic

[10:29]

• Vianne carves a space in a community of grumpy old men at a Marseille bistro through food and empathy, transforming their lives and her own.
• She befriends two young chocolatiers, Gila and Mehmed, discovering the transformative, almost mystical power of chocolate.
• Joanne highlights the role of food and chocolate as simple yet profound connectors.
• Quote: “She is not accepted at first. She is an outsider. She is possibly ethnically different. Nobody quite knows where she's from, including Vian herself. But she's very good at making connections and finding the things that bring them together.” — Joanne Harris [10:29]

Chocolate: Real, Imitation, and Cultural Significance

[13:04]

• Harris contrasts artisan chocolate and “imitation” mass-produced versions, lamenting what’s lost through globalization and commercialization.
• Quote: “Chocolate has been so very successful globally...and has mostly palm oil in it now and, and has very much lost contact with what it used to be ...this special, strange, bitter substance...valued not just for its effect on the body, but also for its spiritual side too.” — Joanne Harris [13:04]
• Zibby and Harris discuss chocolate’s folklore and its ability to polarize—some see it as indulgence, others as a near-dangerous temptation.
• Quote: “It started in Europe as a very niche substance... and it gained traction and became a massive industry. It's now one of the driving industries in the world...People still... divided into people who accept chocolate and people who for some reason think that it will do terrible things to their bodies if they have even the tiniest bit of it.” — Joanne Harris [13:43]

Roots vs. Routes: The Struggle between Attachment and Freedom

[20:03]

• Harris employs wordplay (roots/routes) to represent Vianne’s internal conflict: to settle down (put down roots) or keep moving (follow new routes).
• Quote: “The idea that they have to be free from attachment and from place has always been very important to Jan's mother. But now, if Jan is going to be a mother, she is trying to go a different way for her own child.” — Joanne Harris [20:24]

The “Man in the Black Coat”: Fear, Secrets, and Pursuit

[21:37]

• The mysterious “man in the black coat” symbolizes the many fears haunting Vianne’s mother: fear of being found out, of losing her daughter, and of settling down.
• He’s part threat, part metaphor—sometimes authority, sometimes fate.

Writing Food, Synesthesia, and Finding One’s Voice

[22:42]

• Harris is self-taught and only committed to full-time writing after Chocolat, the first book that felt entirely in her own voice following her experiences of motherhood.
• Sensory immersion is crucial: Harris, who experiences synesthesia (smelling colors), channels her unique experiences into rich, multisensory prose.
• Quote: “Books should be as immersive as possible and would involve, ideally, as many senses as possible. ... I have synesthesia and I smell colors. ... This is my primary access to the world.” — Joanne Harris [23:22–24:24]
• She didn’t realize not everyone had synesthesia until her 30s.

The Writing Life and Advice for Writers

[26:36]

• Harris stresses: discard the word “aspiring”—anyone who wants to write is a writer.
• Quote: “Anyone who wants to write should write, should give themselves permission to write... Not everybody needs to be a professional to enjoy writing and to get joy from writing. And I think joy is really at the heart of this.” — Joanne Harris [26:36]

Current Reads and Cooking in Real Life

[27:10]

• Currently reading: short stories by Sunny Singh, focused on war and its victims.
• Confesses she’s “very good at assembling things” for dinner, doesn’t cook like her fictional characters do.
• Quote: “If it takes longer than 30 minutes to make it, I am not interested in making it right now.” — Joanne Harris [27:36]

Immersion, Scent, and Events

[28:40]

• Harris mentions accompanying her book tour with a bespoke scent inspired by Vianne, hoping to add a new sensory dimension to her readings and signings.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Grief:
  “Grief is love with nowhere to go. That's what my mother used to say.” — Joanne Harris, as read by Zibby Owens [05:57]
• On Chocolate’s Power:
  “I wanted to get back to that, some of the story and the folklore of chocolate and the mythology and the endless history of choc to try to get to the bottom of why chocolate is different from anything else that you can eat.” — Joanne Harris [13:04]
• On Food and Connection:
  “Food is possibly the simplest way of connecting with somebody and expressing feelings towards them.” — Joanne Harris [10:29]
• On Writing and Joy:
  “Anyone who wants to write should write, should give themselves permission to write... And I think joy is really at the heart of this.” — Joanne Harris [26:36]

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• [04:08] Overview of Vianne and connection to Chocolat
• [05:36] Depicting and understanding grief
• [08:10] Memory, food, and the voices of the dead
• [10:29] Community, acceptance, and chocolate’s magic
• [13:04] Real vs. imitation chocolate and globalization
• [20:03] Roots vs. routes—themes of belonging and freedom
• [21:37] The man in the black coat: Symbolizing fear and secrets
• [22:42] Harris on becoming a writer and describing food
• [24:24] Synesthesia and its impact on her writing
• [26:36] Advice to writers: Embrace joy, discard “aspiring”
• [27:10] Current reads and real-life cooking
• [28:40] Creating immersive book experiences with scent

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Episode Tone & Language

The tone of the episode is warm, deeply reflective, and rich with sensory detail. Both Zibby and Joanne speak thoughtfully, with Joanne’s responses marked by literary elegance, a gentle wit, and personal honesty. The conversation mixes literary analysis, personal anecdote, and creative philosophy, making it engaging for both fans of Harris’s work and aspiring writers.

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For more, follow Zibby Owens at @zibbyowens or visit zibbymedia.com. To experience the world of Vianne, pick up the book and, if possible, attend one of Joanne Harris’s immersive, multi-sensory book tour events.

Transcript

[Zibby Owens]

Hi listeners, we have totally booked live coming up this fall and I hope you'll be a part of it. We have three events in New York City September 19th, 25th and 30th in New York where I'll be doing six interviews live each day. We also have a petite retreat in Greenwich on October 4th. Go to zibbemedia.com and event or and or eventbrite and search the events and please come. I can't wait to meet you in person.

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[Joanne Harris]

Did I talk too much? Did I just let it go?

[BetterHelp Representative]

I wish I would stop thinking so much.

[Zibby Owens]

Take a breath, you're not alone. Counseling helps you sort through the noise with qualified professionals. Get matched with a therapist online based on your unique needs and get help with everyday struggles like anxiety or managing tough emotions. Your visit betterhelp.com randompodcast for 10% off your first month of online therapy and let life feel better. Today's episode is sponsored by the Foxed Page, a podcast and YouTube channel that dives deep into the very best books. It's basically your favorite college English class.

[Interviewer/Host]

But very relaxed and way more fun.

[Zibby Owens]

No exams, no participation, and only books you really want to read. Kimberly Ford, best selling author, one time professor and PhD in literature, offers up entertaining, often funny talks that will leave you feeling inspired and a little smarter. She digs right into everything from J.D. salinger to Miranda July, from Demon Copperhead to Madame Bovary, from Pride and Prejudice to Lessons in Chemistry. The talks on individual books are the heart of the podcast, but enriched read segments tackle ideas like unreliable narrators while old favorite talks draw treat you to a fresh adult look at childhood gems like Harriet the Spy and Are you there God? It's me, Margaret. Want to get the most out of.

[Interviewer/Host]

What you read and be entertained along the way?

[Zibby Owens]

The Fox page is for you. Hi, this is Zibbee Owens and you're listening to Totally Booked with Zibby. Formerly Moms don't have time to read books. In my daily show, I interview today's latest best selling buzziest or underrated authors and story creators whose work I think.

[Interviewer/Host]

Is worth your time.

[Zibby Owens]

As a bookstore owner, publisher, author, and obviously podcaster, I get a comprehensive look at everything that's coming out and spend my time curating the best books so you don't have to stay in the know, get insider insights and connect with guests like I do every single day. For more information, go to zibbymedia.com and follow me on Instagram ibeowensk Joanne Harris.

[Interviewer/Host]

Is the author of a novel Joanne is the internationally best selling author of over 20 novels, including Chocolat, which became a movie in 2000 and was nominated for five Oscars and seven Baftas. Her work spans a variety of genres, from magical realism to psychological thriller, and has won a series of literary awards. She has judged numerous literary prizes including the Women's Prize, the Whitbread Prize, and the Royal Society Winton Prize for Science Books. She was the Chair of the Society of authors for 6 years and remains active on issues of authors rights, the use of AI and copyright. She lives in a little wood in Yorkshire, England with her husband and still performs with the band she first formed when she was 16. Welcome Joanne. Thank you so much for coming on Totally Booked to discuss Vianne.

[Zibby Owens]

Vienne.

[Interviewer/Host]

How should we pronounce it? Vienne.

[Joanne Harris]

In French it's Vienne, but you can pronounce it any way you like.

[Interviewer/Host]

Okay, Vienne. Thank you so much. I loved Chocolat when it came out. I read it then I've like was so excited that you had a new book and then I devoured this book start to finish. Absolutely loved. Why don't you tell listeners a little bit about Vienne, but also if they didn't read Chocolat, how this all connects, if you don't mind?

[Joanne Harris]

Well, absolutely. Well this is in many ways the book to start with if you're new to Fian Rocher and her story, because it precedes Chocolat by 6 years and it is Fian's origin story. Now. She and I have traveled together around the world for, oh, 26 years, years now. And so we have grown together, we've seen our children grow and we've both reached the age where it's actually quite important to look back before moving forwards. And so I wrote this as a prequel to Chocolat. In this, Vian has not yet learned to become Vian. She has just lost her mother. She's moved to Marseille on the coast of France from New York. She is in the very early stages of a pregnancy that she didn't plan. She's completely alone. She's homeless. She has no money. She isn't even called Vianne at this point. Point, she is about to discover who she is and where she's going. And because she's alone for the first time in her life, having traveled with her mother for 21 years, she has choices, but all of them come with a price.

[Zibby Owens]

Beautiful.

[Interviewer/Host]

You write so beautifully about grief, about losing her mom. But also, there's so much. There are so many other forms of grief. Louise, whose path she crossed very early on and who kindly offers her a room when he sees her in the state you described, has lost his wife. And you write, can I just read this little line? Is that okay?

[Joanne Harris]

Of course.

[Interviewer/Host]

You say grief is love with nowhere to go. That's what my mother used to say. And there is love inside him. It's like a seam of something bright between two layers of bitter rock. But he has learned to live with his grief. At least it is familiar. Love, on the other hand, is not love and its dangerous sibling, hope. Beautiful. Speak to me a little bit about grief, about how you're able to tap into this grief, how you write about it so eloquently, and what you want readers to take away from their experiences with loss.

[Joanne Harris]

I think everybody who lives to a certain age is going to discover grief at some point. Grief and loss. In my case, I lost my father the year I was writing Vian, and I tapped into that to a certain degree. But I also wanted Vian to be a character who sees the damage in people, who sees their sadness, because she has her own burden of damage and sadness. And she gravitates to a man called Louis, who is the owner of a bistro in Marseille's Old Quarter. And he is not a particularly prepossessing person to start off with. He's rude, he's grumpy, he's cross. He doesn't really want to give her a job, but he does, because she sort of charms him into it. But she realizes that he has lost his wife 20 years ago. He is still working through the grief of losing her, and also the guilt of living without her. And he keeps her memory alive through her recipe books, which are also full of her observations on life. And she becomes one of the voices that Vian's hearing that help her take her path through life and make the choices she needs to choose to become the kind of mother she wants to be.

[Interviewer/Host]

The way you described, how she conjures her spirit, Luis's wife and all of her Recipes and the soulful little notes that she writes in the margins. And how she literally feels her soul sort of around her like a, you know, like a thin blanket or something. You wrote it so much more eloquently than that. But she brings her back to life through her food and her cooking and the smells and senses. Talk about that a little bit and where that comes from.

[Joanne Harris]

Well, I think some of this book comes from the idea that memory, at least helps to bring the dead to life in one way or the other. Louis is treasuring the memory of his wife through her cooking. And he is cooking her recipes just as he did, without changing a thing. Because he doesn't even want to change what's in her kitchen, which is quite scruffy and unkempt, because he's afraid of cleaning the dust of her away, the memory of her away. Vianne, of course, is trying to escape the memory of her mother. And her mother's voice also talks to her, telling her that she has to move on, that she has to beware of getting attached to people. Because if she gets attached to people to place, she is going to lose her freedom. So I wanted these two women's voices in Vian's mind to be both of them very strong, powerful voices directing her down two different option paths. And both through memory. Both of them live through memory and through the things that they've left in the world. In Margaux's case, her cookery book. But also the secret that Louis is carrying through Vianne's mother. The secret of who Vianne is, which is something that, at the beginning of the book, Fian doesn't really know.

[Interviewer/Host]

Lots of secrets that get revealed in this book, which we will not talk about. But all of which surprised me and made the book even richer by the end of it. When you write about her making friends, like Vianne makes friends with the local. These two young guys who are starting this sort of radical nude chocolate store. That, at the time is something that was not done in sort of a back alley of an old herbalist's place. And they teach her. And you teach us how to make chocolate and how to take the cocoa beans and how you process them. And then not only do we learn the ins and outs of that through fiction, but then we see the magic of how chocolate really helps the people who come to the inn. And the grumpy old man Emil, who sits at the bar. And all the other cast of characters as she sprinkles it in or gives them chocolat Chod in the morning or any of that, talk a little bit about that piece of the story, sculpting those men's story, which again, evolved in such an interesting way throughout the book. And chocolate itself.

[Joanne Harris]

Well, when Fian arrives in this community, she doesn't know anybody at all, but she knows that she needs money, she needs a job. And so she finds a community in the old quarter of Marseille, which is a community of grumpy old men, centered around Louis Martin, who is also a grumpy old man, and his. His rather run down cafe. And because she has an ability to see into people and to understand what it is that they need and to understand their grief, she manages to charm her way into the lives of these people to a certain extent. She is not accepted at first. She is an outsider. She is possibly ethnically different. Nobody quite knows where she's from, including Vian herself. But she's very good at making connections and finding the things that bring them together. And in the case of the men at this cafe who come for their lunch every day, it's food, it's cooking. And she manages to learn Marco's recipes and to adapt them slightly to make them her own. And from this, she establishes the most elementary connection there is, because food is possibly the simplest way of connecting with somebody and expressing feelings towards them. And from that, she gains an inroad into the community and some form of acceptance. But she is also making friends with, as you said, these two young men in a back alley, Gila Carriere and his partner Mehmed, who are trying, against all odds and with great financial burden, to create a boutique chocolate shop in the old quarter of Marseille, where nobody's that interested in chocolate and nobody really sees why they need that kind of thing. But their passion for chocolate, for its history, its folklore, the transformative aspect of chocolate from bean to bar, which they are trying to control, this is something that pulls Fianne in. And although she's never actually eaten chocolate, not of that sort, and she doesn't really like it when she first tries it, she does understand their enthusiasm and their passion and the transformative nature of what they're working with.

[Interviewer/Host]

The way you write about chocolate in the us, I think you called it, I don't know, sweaty or oily or something, that made me think, oh my God, gosh, like, as I unwrap the Hershey bar for a s' more or something, how imitation chocolate this really is. And of course I. I love, like a good dark chocolate bar. But the. The vast difference between the two and how chocolate has become repackaged, repurposed, you know, filled with artificial stuff as we do in the United States with everything is quite the contrast. So I appreciate that little, that little saying in there.

[Joanne Harris]

I think we do that everywhere because chocolate has been so very successful globally. It has been globalized and homogenized and has mostly palm oil in it now and, and has very much lost contact with what it used to be with, you know, this, this special, strange, bitter substance that was valued not just for its effect on the body, but also for its spiritual side too. And I wanted to get back to that, some of the story and the folklore of chocolate and the mythology and the endless history of choc to try to get to the bottom of why chocolate is different from anything else that you can eat.

[Interviewer/Host]

And where did your fascination with chocolate begin?

[Joanne Harris]

Well, I've always been interested in folklore and myth and what people believe and have believed over the centuries. And chocolate just has this vast folklore attached to it and this, this incredible history. And it has been incredibly popular. It started in Europe as a very niche substance, something that was thought of as a kind of bizarre tribal concoction. And it gained traction and become, became a massive industry. And it's now, you know, it's one of the driving industries in the world. It's everywhere. It's in every country. It has had phenomenal success and it has still polarized people. People still, you know, divided into people who accept chocolate and people who for some reason think that it will do terrible things to their bodies if they have even the tiniest bit of it. You know, this, this idea that it has always divided people and made them feel that it had perhaps more power over them than it should.

[Interviewer/Host]

Yeah, the ultimate drug here first, one of the first drugs.

[Zibby Owens]

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[Interviewer/Host]

You highlight a few words that have similar similar sounds but different spellings to contrast various things. For example, roots, and roots are O O T s and R O U T E S, which I found particularly.

[Joanne Harris]

Interesting because that could cause hell with my translators. I know. But.

[Interviewer/Host]

But it's true, because putting down roots and the routes that you take in life seem completely opposite and yet sound so similar. Tell me a little bit about that and where Vienne sort of comes from. She wrestles with this, the whole book.

[Joanne Harris]

Yes, and she's going to continue wrestling with it throughout the other four books, in fact, because she is divided between her mother's policy, which has always been to deny putting down roots, to deny connections with people. She's even denied giving Vian the kind of toys that she can take with him on their journeys because the idea that Vian could become too attached to something has always been anathema to her. And so the Idea that they have to be free from attachment and from place has always been very important to Jan's mother. But now, if Jan is going to be a mother, she is trying to go a different way for her own child. And so the idea that from a journey to a making of a home, that that one route can become another. And. And she's hoping that her daughter will grow to have friends and toys and a home and that she will be able to have a kitchen with her own things in it and all the things that she's never had. She doesn't quite know how to do this. And her mother's voice is still very strong in her mind, telling her that that is terribly dangerous and that there is something pursuing her and if she stops, it will catch up with them.

[Interviewer/Host]

And this notion of the man in the black coat, what is that?

[Zibby Owens]

What is that for you?

[Interviewer/Host]

Is that death? Is it bad luck?

[Zibby Owens]

What does that represent?

[Joanne Harris]

I think it represents a lot of things to Vian's mother. It is the reason she can't stop. And there is a secret, of course, because everybody has a secret in this book that she is carrying, which I won't reveal at this point, but we do find out what it is at the end. But I think it's also a manifestation of all the things that Fianne's mother fears. Being found out, being discovered, losing her daughter, having to stay in one place when she doesn't want to, losing the freedom that she's had and the life that she's made. All of this is summarized by the man in black, who might also be a figure of authority, the church, a father figure. And he changes aspect as we go through the story, because he's not just one thing, he's many.

[Interviewer/Host]

And back to the food, just for a minute. And your history in general as a writer. How did you become an author yourself? And how did you learn to write about food and meals and cooking in such an eloquent, captivating way?

[Joanne Harris]

I didn't learn. I'm completely self taught. I read a lot as a child. I wrote a lot of stories as a child. I fel into becoming published as a sort of experiment. I wasn't expecting to give up my day job as a teacher to write full time because I was told that the kind of things I was writing were not commercial, were not fashionable, were not easily quantifiable in literary terms. But I was having fun. And I've always just written what I wanted to write. And in the case of Chocolat, I think there was a Pivotal point there, because Chocolat was my third book. I'd written two other books that were not quite in my voice. I was having difficulty understanding what my voice was, and I was very good at doing other people's voices, but I hadn't really come to my own. And then I had my daughter, and I wrote Chocolat. And that was the story of a woman with a young. A young daughter. And I realized that that was my voice. And so I took into that story a lot of stuff about my. My French heritage, the things that I remember from my French family, a lot of stuff about motherhood. And I thought, okay, this is what I sound like. And from then on, all my books were. Were very much centered around those things. And because I've always thought that books should be as immersive as possible and would involve, ideally, as many senses as possible, I started to include scent and taste, primarily partly because I have synesthesia and I smell colors. And so, you know, this is. This is my primary access to the world, but also because I wanted it to be an immersive experience for the reader. And so I think, inevitably, a lot of scents and tastes found their way into the stories that way.

[Interviewer/Host]

Can you explain synesthesia for people who are not as familiar with it?

[Joanne Harris]

This is a form of neurodiversity, whereby two senses, and they can be any senses, are emerged in a sort of way. So, you know, sometimes a color can paint a sound, or sometimes, in my case, a color pings a scent. So I would be very happy in your library there, because all your books are all different colors. I would have a great time working out what they all smell of.

[Interviewer/Host]

When did you realize you had that?

[Joanne Harris]

I only realized that not everybody else had that when I was in my 30s. It wasn't a topic that people discussed. And, you know, I just took it for granted that everybody smelled colors. But I've talked to so many other synesthetes who have said the same thing, who have said that it took them, in some cases, decades to understand that not everybody processed the world in which. In the way that they did. Because, actually, I think we just assume that we are entirely normal and that everybody else is exactly like us. And, of course, the more we realize about neurodiversity, the more we realize that that's quite, quite untrue and very likely we all have idiosyncratic ways of processing reality.

[Interviewer/Host]

Very true. Wow. Well, what a gift to put it all into fiction so the rest of us can benefit from the senses that you evoke. Where do you your writing going after this book?

[Joanne Harris]

Well, I've written 20 odd books now and I have never quite known where it was going. I've always written the book that needed to be written at the time. And so writing and publishing being what it is, I've already finished my next book, which I've just finished editing this week, which is very different from Fian, which is a kind of supernatural folk horror set on the Yorkshire moors. But I have written now five books about fiance. She keeps coming back. I think we've grown alike with age, although we were very unlike when I started writing Chocolat. And I think it's not unlikely that she will come back at some point with a story or one of her daughters will come back with a story and I will write about her again.

[Interviewer/Host]

Amazing. What advice would you have for aspiring authors?

[Joanne Harris]

Well, for a start, ditch the word aspiring because it's unhelpful and it makes a kind of us and them division between people who are published and people who are not published or people who want to be published. I think think anyone who wants to write should write, should give themselves permission to write and to find it as important as they want to find it. Not everybody needs to be a professional to enjoy writing and to get joy from writing. And I think joy is really at the heart of this. Just do it, love it and hope that somebody else loves it too.

[Interviewer/Host]

What are you reading right now?

[Joanne Harris]

Right now I am reading a collection of short stories by Sunny Singh, who has been collecting these for quite a long time, who is writing about war and the victims of war in one way or another. It's very interesting, very well written, very beautiful.

[Interviewer/Host]

And what about your cooking pursuits? Are you as good a cook, a chef? What is. Do you make dinners like this every night? Is this what your kitchen looks like?

[Joanne Harris]

I absolutely don't, no. I don't spend a lot of time in the kitchen. I do enjoy cooking. I think it's therapeutic, but I don't do it every day. I'm very good at assembling things at the moment. I'm mostly assembling things because I've got so little time to do any cooking that I might cook a meal at the weekend. The rest of the time, you know, if it takes. If it takes longer than 30 minutes to make it, I am not interested in making it right now.

[Interviewer/Host]

Well, I was, I was feeling ashamed at my lack of cooking, proud as I read this book and I'm like, she must cook. And she writes so much. Oh my gosh, this is the mate. So anyway, glad to know that. Selfish.

[Joanne Harris]

I think a lot better at cooking than I am. I think she's much better at following a recipe too. I'm incapable of following a recipe.

[Interviewer/Host]

Well, it would be really neat to go to Bon Mer. That's the name of the. Right, the name of the cafe. I would love to see a pop up of that on your tour. Like maybe, I don't know if you have any plans of that, but I would love to just go in and get a little meal and maybe try the bouillabaisse.

[Joanne Harris]

Wouldn't that be nice? Well, I shall, I shall suggest it. I'm coming to the Boston Lit Fest in October, so, you know, maybe somebody can do something there. Otherwise I shall have my bottle of scent that I made to accompany this book and I shall be spritzing books and people if they want to be spritzed and they will get the scent illustration of Vian, which is what I've been working on alongside writing the book and which I think gives an extra little dimension to. To the story. Absolutely.

[Interviewer/Host]

Well, thank you so much for coming on. Thank you for the joy you gave me in reading the book and all the different paths that took me down and sort of the mystical element that makes you just sit back in your chair a little bit and wonder. So thank you.

[Joanne Harris]

Thank you so much. I do appreciate that.

[Interviewer/Host]

Thank you. Thanks so much. Bye bye.

[Joanne Harris]

Thank you. Bye Bye bye.

[Zibby Owens]

Thank you for listening to Totally Booked with Zibby, formerly Moms don't have time to read books. If you loved the show, tell a friend, leave a review, follow me on Instagram ibbeoans and spread the word. Thanks so much. Oh, and buy the books.

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