#BlogTour ‘The Storyteller Of Casablanca’ by Fiona Valpy

About the book…

In this evocative tale from the bestselling author of The Dressmaker’s Gift, a strange new city offers a young girl hope. Can it also offer a lost soul a second chance?

Morocco, 1941. With France having fallen to Nazi occupation, twelve-year-old Josie has fled with her family to Casablanca, where they await safe passage to America. Life here is as intense as the sun, every sight, smell and sound overwhelming to the senses in a city filled with extraordinary characters. It’s a world away from the trouble back home—and Josie loves it.

Seventy years later, another new arrival in the intoxicating port city, Zoe, is struggling—with her marriage, her baby daughter and her new life as an expat in an unfamiliar place. But when she discovers a small wooden box and a diary from the 1940s beneath the floorboards of her daughter’s bedroom, Zoe enters the inner world of young Josie, who once looked out on the same view of the Atlantic Ocean, but who knew a very different Casablanca.

It’s not long before Zoe begins to see her adopted city through Josie’s eyes. But can a new perspective help her turn tragedy into hope, and find the comfort she needs to heal her broken heart?

My thanks to Rhiannon at FMcM publicists for inviting me on the tour for ‘The Storyteller Of Casablanca’ by Fiona Valpy, also the delicious honey and recipe card for an authentic cake, hopefully I will make a batch that tastes, and looks as good as the ones pictured.

I absolutely devoured this novel, Fiona has such a way of beckoning you in, whispering that she is going to tell you a tale, and all the world seems to fade away…

You can dive in to the stories of Zoe and Josie, and relate to them so very much, the feeling of belonging, of what we, the Welsh call ‘Hiraeth’, is an intrinsic human want, and need, that every reader can appreciate on so many levels.

Zoe, in 2010, is making a fresh start with her baby, Grace, and her husband, Tom, in Morocco. Something has happened, something which is viewed by the reader as a trauma which she is recovering from, a loss or a grief for something she has lost, or is losing, which exhibits itself in her patterns of hand washing and anxiety.

Grace’s room has a squeaky floorboard, and, pulling back the carpet, she finds it is loosely fitting, and a perfect hiding place for treasures. What she discovers is a beautifully carved box, containing a book, recording the thoughts of 12 year old Josie who is in not such a dissimilar position as Zoe.

As Zoe, Tom and Grace are looking to start again and have, essentially , chosen to go to Casablanca, for Josie, this decision was made for her by her parents, to leave Paris in 1941, and make their home in Boulevard de Oiseau, prior to crossing the sea to America. The trip that they have taken, Josie, her older sister and parents, was made necessary by the increasing danger to them as a Jewish family, even, as Josie says, a not particularly observant religious family.

Both Josie and Zoe are outsiders, and I think that speaks so strongly to the human experience of wanting to, needing to belong, but also aware of everything which makes you other, and different. This is seen when Zoe takes Grace out for a walk and quickly becomes lost amongst the maze of similar looking alleyways. And when Josie is told to remove her gold star of David necklace before going to the market with her mother, so as not to draw attention to herself.

Both these scenes make you feel sad, and also wary, as all Josie wanted to do was hold onto the things which make her, her. It is nothing she is ashamed of, and yet, she is not allowed to talk about it because they need to maintain their status as temporary dwellers.

Zoe just wants to find a community where she can begin to heal, and , having connected with ex-pat wives, she asks how she will make a quilt, she has some ideas but little to no knowledge on how to bring this vision to life. Her impression of Casablanca has been framed by the movie and the reality is so very different, the passage of time not withstanding.

Can Josie’s wide eyed enthusiasm, and different perspective, change the way that Zoe sees her new home?

And how she sees herself?

As you read, you become so invested in Zoe and Josie and at the same time, dread finding out what happened to both of them. As tensions and the news of the war filters in from the outside world, Josie becomes so aware of the difference between how different groups of people portray what is actually going on in Europe.

There are so many parallels to be drawn between then and now, the sense of ‘othering’ has never been so visible in that the issue of immigration is a bone which political parties fight over, whilst real, actual people are suffering on a daily basis. And, with the advent of Brexit, it seems that countries are drawing their drawbridges up and stating what is, and is not allowed. For all the talk of universal communities, how, really have we move on as a race? And this is why writers like Fiona Valpy need to keep on telling their stories, from so many perspectives, to raise awareness of the essential humanity of those who are other. What we can learn from them can change how you see yourself too. And that can only benefit us all.

About the author…

Fiona Valpy spent seven years living in France, having moved there from the UK in 2007. She and her family renovated an old, rambling farmhouse in the Bordeaux winelands, during which time she developed new-found skills in cement-mixing, interior decorating and wine-tasting.

All of these inspirations, along with a love for the place, the people and their history, have found their way into the books she’s written, which have been translated into German, Norwegian, Czech, Slovenian and Turkish.

Fiona now lives in Scotland, but enjoys regular visits to France in search of the sun.

Links-http://fionavalpy.com/

Twitter @FionaValpy @FMcMAssociates @LUAuthors