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''Five Quarters of the Orange'' is a novel by Joanne Harris first published by Doubleday in 2001. ''Five Quarters of the Orange'' has two time lines which alternate throughout the novel. One begins during Framboise Dartigen's childhood during the German Occupation. Framboise remembers her difficult relationship with her mother and two siblings as well as her dangerous friendship with a young German officer. The other is in present-day France, now following the life of the widowed Framboise Simon, having returned to the village of her childhood from which her family was expelled during the Second World War. Framboise opens a small restaurant, cooking the recipes left to her by her mother, whilst concealing her identity, lest she be recognized as the daughter of the woman who once brought shame and tragedy upon the village. As with her other works, ''Blackberry Wine'' and ''Chocolat'', Joanne Harris places strong emphasis on the symbolic and emotional importance of food and cooking throughout the novel. For Framboise's mother, cooking is a means of expressing her love for her children, whereas others use food as a weapon, for bartering and blackmail. Food also serves its purpose as a gateway to the past and is a significant key to tying the two time lines together. ==Synopsis== Framboise Dartigen, the youngest child of Mirabelle Dartigena woman still remembered and hated for an incident that happened in the village, ''Les Laveuses'', when Framboise was nine, during the Second World War. Framboise was profoundly marked by this incident and the events leading up to it. Now a widow of twenty years, she returns to the village on the Loire to restore the family's burnt out farm. She uses her married name, Francoise Simon, as she does not want the villagers to know her real identity. She opens a small restaurant and business is successful. A notable food critic brings it to prominence in a national magazine. This results in a visit from her nephew, Yannick, and his wife, Laure. They are eager to profit from Framboise's sudden popularity. The arrival of Luc threatens the new life she has built for herself. Framboise, her brother Cassis and her sister Reine-Claude lost their father early. Their mother, Mirabelle Dartigen, was a difficult woman, prone to crippling migraines and more tender with her fruit trees than with her own children. Faced with having to bring up three children and run a farm alone, Mirabelle had to be very tough; sadly, this toughness translated into a lack of outward affection towards her children. When the war came and the Germans occupied Les Laveuses, Mirabelle had to be tougher than ever; the children, with no-one to supervise them, ran wild, eventually falling under the spell of a young German soldier, Tomas, who first bribed them with black-market goods like oranges or chocolate, then manipulated them into secretly giving him information about their friends and neighbours. Framboise, the youngest child, who was nine at the time, and whose relationship with her mother was especially tortuous, became closest to Tomas, and now blames herself for the series of events that resulted in Tomas' death, the retribution killing of ten villagers by the Gestapo and Mirabelle's flight from the family home. Now, 56 years later, Framboise relives these traumatic events and tries to understand how they have shaped her life and relationships. Eventually, as the truth emerges, she learns how to face down the bullies who threaten her, as well as to forgive herself and her mother, to give herself permission to love, to reconnect with her two estranged daughters and to finally put the past to rest. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Five Quarters of the Orange」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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