The island is made up of two villages that have been in competition for as long as anyone can remember. Shifting between family relationships and community politics, Harris builds a history of the families who inhabit Le Devin. These were precious moments for me snatched at times when Adrienne and my mother went into La Houssiniere together hoarded and gloated over in secret. To some degree it had worked sometimes he would let me come fishing for sea bass in the surf, or take me with him to the oyster beds with pitchforks and baskets. I grew up trying to atone for the disappointment I had caused, wearing my hair short to please him, avoiding the company of other girls to win his approval. A first daughter had been bad enough a second, four years later, had finally killed what little remained of my parents' intimacy. Daughters, with all the expense that entailed, were of no interest to Jean Prasteau. GrosJean, like most island men, had wanted sons: sons to work the boatyard, to tend the family grave. Things might have been different if I had been a boy. Coastliners becomes a story about family and the intricate balances between the tenderness and tension therein. Tomboyish Mado always strived to fill the empty space of the son GrosJean never had however, in his old age he seems to be more interested and lively when ultra-feminine Adrienne visits. While Mado is still single and has always 'traveled light,' her sister, Adrienne, has done the 'right things' in life she married well and has two boys who become the apple of their grandfather's eye. GrosJean, suffering from endless grief over the death of his younger brother, P'titJean, has gradually fallen into a speechless and solitary pattern of life. When her mother dies, Mado returns to Le Devin to visit her father, GrosJean, with whom she has had no contact over all those years. Much more melancholy and serious, this story centers on Mado Prasteau, a beautiful island native who has been living in Paris with her mother for the past 10 years. She leaves the sleepy French mainland village and all of its upbeat charm and magical realism for a sleepy French island village full of superstition, suspicion, envy, competition, lethargy and - finally - hope. Joanne Harris' Coastliners is a departure from her Lansquenet stories ( Chocolat, Blackberry Wine). Jump to a review of Gentlemen and Players

Blackberry wine by joanne harris