The Strawberry Thief

The Strawberry Thief is a magical realism novel by UK author Joanne Harris, published by Orion Books in 2019.

[5] When florist Narcisse dies of old age, gifts a parcel of land to Rosette, and leaves a written confession to Reynaud, the parish priest, the village is thrown into disarray.

When one of these episodes leads to Mimi's death, the teenage Narcisse kills the aunt and hides her body in a disused well on the property.

As an adult, he inherits the farm and plants thousands of trees around the site, leaving a clearing in the shape of a heart to commemorate his beloved sister.

[4] Harris has stated in interviews that she has a form of synaesthesia that allows her to "smell colours", and that she uses scent as part of her writing process.

[14] For The Strawberry Thief, she teamed up with fragrance manufacturer CPL Aromas to create a scent to accompany a passage from the book.

Harris described the scent as "bright notes of vanilla and popcorn added to a darker base of amber, chypre, cumin, bitter chocolate, cedar and sandalwood".

One of the visual themes of the book is the William Morris Strawberry Thief textile pattern, which is featured heavily in the novel.

The Morris pattern was a useful starting point to illustrate those ideas.The Strawberry Thief of the title refers not only to Rosette, but also to this Victorian design, details of which Morgane has tattooed onto her body.