Desire for Chocolate by Care Santos; translated by Julie Wark, 2016.

This novel won the Ramon Lull Prize in 2014 for its author who writes for children as well as for adults and previously studied law.

The book is cleverly constructed with three separate stories about chocolate makers in different epochs linked by a porcelain chocolate pot which was made in the eighteenth century on the command of Madame Adelaide, the fourth daughter of King Louis XV of France. The story is told back to front with the 21^st century story of Max, Sara and Oriol first and begins with the accidental smashing of the pot into smithereens and its painful piecing back together again by Max. The pot belongs to Sara who bought it an old antiques shop in Barcelona many years before. The pot has a chipped spout, no lid and lacks its swizzle stick which would have stirred the chocolate.

The second story is of the illegitimate kitchen maid Aurora who works for a local Barcelona family, the Turulls, and is of the same age as their daughter, Candida.  Aurora  makes a surprisingly good marriage to a local doctor who has a great fondness for opera, whilst Candida Turull marries into the Sampon family. The chapters in this section are named after the operas which Aurora and her husband go to see where, in one of the boxes, is Antoni Sampons, esteemed chocolatier, and his daughter and we learn more about the scandal that surrounds them.  Aurora, accidentally, comes into possession of the chocolate pot which she tries to return to the rightful owners. Small incidents about how the pot comes to be damaged are sprinkled throughout the novel

The third story is about the Marianna, wife of Fernandes, the most famous eighteenth century chocolate manufacturer, who supplies the French court with chocolate and invents a chocolate mill. Marianna is based on the real life figure of Eulalia Gallisans who singlehandedly ran a chocolate shop in Barcelona after her husband died and ran into trouble with the Guilds. She is visited by French representative of Madame Adelaide, Victor Guillot, another historical character. And so we arrive back in time with Madame Adelaide at the court of Louis XV.

There is a helpful list of characters at the end of the novel; also helpful notes explaining some of the technical chocolate terms.

Review copy sent to me by Alma Books