Product Description

Bella is a teenage chocolate addict who lives in an idyllic village in France with her aristocratic grandmother. Her eccentric life is shaken by the sudden appearance of a deposed African leader, an urbane man with a reputation for intense cruelty, who develops a strong interest in her.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1503801 in Books
• Published on: 1990-04-05
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 272 pages

Customer Reviews

A good read
This book seems to combine all the virtues of a good read: interesting content matter, both in terms of plot and ideas about life, and great writing style.

The plot: a teenage girl deserted by her mother and an orphan from her father relates her views on life and her social surroundings while spending her summer holidays in her grandmother's house in a touristic French village. Her disgust with her super-rationale uncle, her disappointment with the current political scene, and her loneliness are interrupted by the advent of a mysterious black man at the village's luxurious hotel. She uses all her ingenuity to save him from the hands of the extremist right-wing political party that dominates the village but finds herself in a predicament soon afterwards.

This incredibly intricate and interesting story would have seemed totally fake if it hadn't been written so skillfully.The girl's character has all the rebellious and idealistic spirit of teenagers of every era convincingly blended with the cynicism of today's youth. Events occurring not only in Africa (the writer is from South Africa)but also in France seem very believable thanks to his good knowledge of the two cultures. Finally, the philosophical comments of a teenager about God and Science are witty and deep and have stayed in my memory weeks after reading the novel.

As already said, this book is interesting in terms of content in two ways: First the plot is interesting and second the underlying symbolisms and comments about society seem worth considering and, in fact, true to me. But, I won't go into any more details about how this book has affected me. I just wanted to say that it is not only entertaining but also thought-provoking.