Chocolat by Joanne Harris
Initially I found Chocolat slow moving. Mysticism is not one of my favorite subjects and veiled references to past events that the reader isn’t going to learn about until later are an irritating device, in my opinion. But once the story got going, I really enjoyed it. The preist’s chapters are particularly good. I loved how the supposed ascetic gave all of the sensual detail. The book flagged again at the end, going out with a whimper not a bang, but it was a very enjoyable read. I wonder if the movie made out Catholicism to be evil quite as much as the book did.