Why a Booktrail?
1919 – How far must you run to leave the past behind in order to find love?
Where the Wild Cherries Grow
What you need to know before your trail
The war is over but for many there is no peace. Thousands of men have not returned and families are left with the impossibility of trying to carry on. Emeline Vance is one of these women who finds this lack of hope and senseless empty world too much to bear and in a moment of desperation, she boards a train and runs away.
Her journey leads her to a tiny seaside village in the South of France. Taken in by cafe owner Maman and her twenty-year-old son, Emeline discovers a world completely new to her: of oranges, olives and wild herbs, the raw, rich tastes of the land. This is the land of new flavours and new love.
Fifty years later, a young solicitor on his first case finds Emeline’s diary, and begins to trace a story of a woman where betrayal, love and hidden secrets are the key ingredients
Locations
ResetTravel Guide
Norfolk – Hallerton House in Saltedge
Where the story of ‘before’ unfolds, Hallerton House is revealed in two different time zones. Emeline disappears from here and later Bill finds a mountain of memories. This is Saltedge where you only have to sneeze before everyone knows everything about you
We turn a corner and I see buildings,crooked houses and cottages around a tiny village green. I guess this is Saltedge”
Away from the village, the land opens out. This must be the marsh. clumps of reeds, froths of pink and yellow flowers. There’s flash, and a great white bird takes off, trailing toothpick legs towards the sea.”
France – Pyrenees – Cerbère
After passing through the ‘refugee camp’ which the Gare D’Austerlitz appears to be, Emeline ends up in Cerbère ,a very unique town in France since it’s a mix of French and Spanish as it’s situated on the border between the two countries and is the last stop as it were….even the pub there is called The End of the World. Apt for a post war time…
“I wondered at the cafes name. The town here certainly felt removed, perched on the very edge of France, in a forgotten concern that I had ever noticed. Although I knew now that Span lay just over the border it still seemed a thousand miles away. Cerbère was its own place: neither one country nor another.”
A town which shares the same appearance, emotions and backstory of a girl lost in the shadow of war…
Streetview Maps
D) Cerbère- the street of the cafe and coloured houses
E) Cerbère - the beach
Booktrailer Review
Susan: @thebooktrailer
What a lovely story of war, love, hope and secrets! I gobbled this up almost as fast as the cherry pie I made with the receipes at the back of the book. The book is full of foody and cake references so if you’re hungry, it might be a good idea to wait until you’ve eaten before you dig into this! You can tell the author knows her food as the beauty of food in the fresh atmosphere of France is a joy to read. This is where Emeline has come following the rations of the war in England so it’s even more of a feast for her.
The story alludes to the pain and anguish felt by those affected by war. Survivors might still be living in body, but in spirit, it’s quite another story. The plot, told over two time periods, is told through the eyes of Emeline and the man who finds her diaries. There’s just something delicious about lost diaries and trails to find the truth so I was immersed in this from the start. The cover is gorgeous too which helps but the story is the bowl where you mix all the ingredients and find yourself licking your lips as the story unfolds.
And the icing on the cake? The writing – “The hot afternoon is sliding over the edge of evening” and “I felt cold upon mu face. It smelled of frozen fields , of smoke, of rivers deep in winter’s hold” and wait until you taste the words describing the food itself?
Booktrail Boarding Pass: Where the Wild Cherries Grow
Destination: Norfolk, France, Cerbère Author/Guide: Laura Madeleine Departure Time: 1919, 1969
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