Blackberry Wine - Joanne Harris

From the author of Chocolat comes an intoxicating tale of love lost and found, set in a small French village. As a boy Jay spent summers in Europe hanging out with his friend Joe and his homemade wines. Now a young man, Jay returns to France to recapture some of the magic of his lost youth.As a boy, writer Jay Mackintosh spent three golden summers in the ramshackle home of Jackapple Joe Cox.

A lonely child, he found solace in Old Joe's simple wisdom and folk charms. The magic was lost, however, when Joe disappeared without warning one fall. Years later, Jay's life is stalled with regret and ennui.

His bestselling novel, Jackapple Joe, was published ten years earlier and he has written nothing since. Impulsively, he decides to leave his urban life in London and, sight unseen, purchases a farmhouse in the remote French village of Lansquenet. There, in that strange and yet strangely familiar place, Jay hopes to re-create the magic of those golden childhood summers.

And while the spirit of Joe is calling to him, it is actually a similarly haunted, reclusive woman who will ultimately help Jay find himself again.