Joanne Harris began writing at an early age. She was strongly influenced by Grimms' Fairy Tales and Charles Perrault's work, as well as local folklore and Norse mythology. She was educated at Wakefield Girls' High School, Barnsley Sixth Form College, and St Catharine's College, Cambridge, where she studied modern and medieval languages. In Coastliners, Madeline, “Mado”, coming back from Paris to the windswept French island of Le Devin, where her father still lives after her mother’s death. There are two towns: the northern one, Les Salants, is poor, hardscrabble, and full of character, while the southern, La Houssiniere, is rich, arrogant, and touristy. The ocean is indeed a harsh mistress, and Mado notices right away, after failing to make much headway in reconnecting with her taciturn, mule-headed father, that Les Salants’ formerly gorgeous beach has been mostly washed out to sea. Mado senses a project just crying out for her to organize, and so, in the grand tradition of fictional small towns everywhere, the people of Les Salants leave their grumpiness behind and band together to build a reef that will shelter the beach and, they hope, encourage some of the tourist business away from La Houssiniere. Unfortunately, though, the proprietor of La Houssiniere’s hotel, Les Immortelles, a foxy businessman by the name of Claude Brismand, won’t take the challenge lying down… You can listen online to free English audiobook “Coastliners” by Joanne Harris on our website. Enjoy it!
