Pieces of Happiness

Anne Ostby

Aug 2017 · Sold by Anchor

About this ebook

A novel of five lifelong friends who, in their sixties, decide to live together on a cocoa farm in Fiji, where they not only start a chocolate business but strengthen their friendships and rediscover themselves.

"I've planted my feet on Fijian earth and I intend to stay here until the last sunset. Why don't you join me? Leave behind everything that didn't work out!"

When Sina, Maya, Ingrid, and Lisbeth each receive a letter in the mail posing the same question, the answer is obvious. Their old high school friend Kat—Kat the adventurer, Kat who spread her wings and took off as soon as they graduated—has extended the invitation of a lifetime: Come live with me on my cocoa farm in Fiji. Come spend the days eating chocolate and gabbing like teenagers once again, free from men, worries, and cold. Come grow old in paradise, together, as sisters. Who could say no?
     Now in their sixties, the friends have all but resigned themselves to the cards they've been dealt. There's Sina, a single mom with financial woes; gentle Maya who feels the world slipping away from her; Ingrid, the perennial loner; Lisbeth, a woman with a seemingly picture-perfect life; and then Kat, who is recently widowed. As they adjust to their new lives together, the friends are watched over by Ateca, Kat's longtime housekeeper, who oftentimes knows the women better than they know themselves and recognizes them for what they are: like "a necklace made of shells: from the same beach but all of them different." Surrounded by an azure-blue ocean, cocoa trees, and a local culture that is fascinatingly, joyfully alien, the friends find a new purpose in starting a business making chocolate: bittersweet, succulent pieces of happiness.
     A story of love, hope, and chocolate, PIECES OF HAPPINESS will reaffirm your faith in friendship, second chances, and the importance of indulging one's sweet tooth.

Ratings and reviews

Pieces of Happiness by Anne Ostby is the story of five friends starting a new lease on life in their 60s. Kat had finally settled down in Korototoka, Fiji with her husband, Nicklaus after year of traveling. Unfortunately, they only got to enjoy Vale nei Kat, the cocoa plantation, for a few years before he passed away. Kat wrote to her four high school friends (that she has not seen in forty years) inviting them to join her in Fiji. It will give all them a chance to reconnect and start a new venture together. Ingrid, Sina, Lisbeth, Maya and Kat had never thought they would get such an opportunity and leap at the opportunity. Their golden years will be filled with friendship, happiness and chocolate. Each one of them have secrets they wish to keep hidden, but it is hard to do with good friends. The first thing the five of them need to decide is how to make the farm profitable. Soon Kat’s Chocolate is born. Can they make a success of the business? Can the five friends live out the rest of their days together? See how these five women fare in this book about friendship, second chances and healthy chocolate. Pieces of Happiness was not a pleasant read for me (made me wish we could read a preview before agreeing to review). The POV alternates between the five women and the housekeeper which made it confusing (especially if you put the book down and then come back to it hour later). All the characters are thrown at you and I never did get them straight (they each have a different story). I found the pace to be slow (plodding). The writer is overly descriptive and likes flowery prose (which I found off putting). It reminded me of how people talked in the 1960s (based on movies, not actual experience—just to clarify). Think San Francisco, Haigh-Ashbury, laid back islands, crystals, Zen. I believe I am too sensible for this novel. The writing seemed clunky (for lack of a better word) and the book was too long (you can see why I started skimming—my term for speedreading). It could be (in part) the translation of the writing from the author’s native language to English (but this should have been corrected by the editor). I found the story a little boring and it ended as expected. I give Pieces of Happiness 2 out of 5 stars (I did not like it). I tried several times to get into and read this novel (the blurb made it sound good). I ended up skimming through the book to see what happened to each character (I always finish a book I agreed to review).

About the author

Anne Ostby is a Norwegian author and journalist who has written children's books, YA, and adult books. PIECES OF HAPPINESS—translated by one of her three daughters, Marie—is the first to be published in the United States, and is also being published in 10 other countries, from Brazil to China to Italy. Ostby presently resides with her husband in East Timor, having lived in Denmark, Malaysia, Pakistan, Kazakstan, USA, Iran, Fiji over the last twenty-seven years.