The Discovery of Chocolate: A Novel

(Paperback)

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Description

A wonderfully inventive and entertaining journey through time and the history of chocolate!
The Discovery of Chocolate is a fabulous tale, as rich and exotic as the gorgeous creation that Diego de Godoy first discovers when he arrives in Mexico with Cortes and his conquistadors.

Diego is seeking his fortune in the New World. What he finds is love, and chocolate, and an elixir of life. Separated from his lover, he must wander the world, and the centuries, in search of the fulfilment that he first knew in Mexico.

In a series of dramatic episodes that are evocative, witty and thought-provoking, from revolutionary Paris to Freuds Vienna, Frys Bristol and Hersheys Pittsburgh, Diego and his ever-faithful greyhound, Pedro, seek the perfection of chocolate and the meaning of life.

Reviews

'The Discovery of Chocolate is as intoxicating and addictive as the substance it describes. The novel is a triumph of inspired imagination...' Financial Times 'The Discovery of Chocolate is a sensual delight which does not take itself too seriously and leaves a lingering sweetness in its wake. More books should be like this; elegantly written, unpretentious and unashamed fun.' Joanne Harris, The Times

Author Bio

James Runcie is an award winning film-maker whose work includes Miss Pyms Day Out, Childhood, Great Composers, How Buildings Learn, The Figure on the Cross, Henry Moore, and The River. He was a Producer with BBC Arts and Classical Music from 19881999, but now works out of Oxford Television where he has a four film deal with Channel 4. He has just completed Saturday, Sunday and My Father, an intimate portrait of his father, Lord Runcie, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, which was shown on December 16th. In 2001 he will be directing a feature length documentary on The Great Fire of London, again for Channel 4. He was part of the original team that created The Late Show for BBC2, and has also worked in the theatre, directing a Glasgow fashion show, Liz Lochheads feminist review Nippy Sweeties, Harvey and the Wallbangers, and T.S. Eliots The Wasteland on the main stage of the Barbican for the Royal Shakespeare Company. He has scripted three films for BBC Television, reviewed books for The Daily Telegraph, and has written feature articles for publications as diverse as The Observer, The Evening Standard, She, Country Living and Marxism Today. He also served on the Arts Council Literature Panel from 19901994. He is unashamedly forty-one, and lives in St. Albans with his wife, the Drama Producer Marilyn Imrie, and two daughters, Rosie and Charlotte. The Discovery of Chocolate is his first novel, written because he finds the prospect of everlasting life far more frightening than death, and because, according to the April 2000 issue of Vogue Magazine, Its official. People who eat chocolate live longer than those who do not. Like most people who have worked in the theatre, he has also worked as a waiter, and brought chocolate to many of the tables of the rich and famous. His experiments with chocolate in his own kitchen however, have been little short of disastrous.