Fresh Water for Flowers
by Valérie Perrin
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Pub Date 9 Jul 2020 | Archive Date 24 Jul 2020
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Description
A hymn to the wonder of small things.
Violette Toussaint is the caretaker at a cemetery in a small town in Bourgogne. Random visitors, regulars, and her colleagues—three gravediggers, three groundskeepers, and a priest—visit her to warm themselves in her lodge, where laughter, companionship, and occasional tears mix with the coffee that she offers them. Her daily life is lived to the rhythms of their hilarious and touching confidences.
Violette’s routine is disrupted one day by the arrival of a man—Julien Seul, local police chief—who insists on depositing the ashes of his recently departed mother on the gravesite of a complete stranger. It soon becomes clear the grave Julien is looking for belongs to his mother’s one-time lover, and that his mother’s story of clandestine love is intertwined with Violette’s own secret grief.
With Fresh Water for Flowers, Valérie Perrin gives readers the funny, moving, intimately told story of a woman who believes obstinately in happiness. Perrin has the rare talent of illuminating the exceptional and the poetic in what seems ordinary. A delightful, atmospheric, absorbing fairy tale full of poetry, generosity, and warmth.
A Note From the Publisher
For fans of A Man Called Ove, Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine, The Elegance of the Hedgehog
Advance Praise
“An insightful novel, a book whose droll and endearing characters will bring you from tears to laughter.”—Michel Bussi
“Breathtaking.”—Unidivers
“The balance between laughter and tears is spot on.”—Lire
“Thundering applause. And, believe us, the word ‘thunder’ is not too strong.”—La Marseillese
“A bad, bad, bad case of love at first read. This is a splendid, moving book.”—C'est au programme
Marketing Plan
• Lead title
• #1 Bestseller in France with 200,000 copies sold
• Winner of the Prix Maison de la Presse 2018
• Lead title
• #1 Bestseller in France with 200,000 copies sold
• Winner of the Prix Maison de la Presse 2018
Available Editions
| EDITION | Hardcover |
| ISBN | 9781787702202 |
| PRICE | £13.99 (GBP) |
Featured Reviews
Alan M, Bookseller
'We have come here in search, in search of something or someone. In search of that love that is stronger than death.'
This is one of those books that just draws you in, wrings your heart out and leaves you, after the last page, emerging back into your world somehow profoundly changed. The story of Violette Toussaint (née Trenet), caretaker at a cemetery in a small French town, this develops slowly and in layers into a study of love, friendship and loss. Violette's husband, Philippe, is missing - not that she minds, for their marriage was not a happy one. Now she spends her days tending to the graves and lending a listening ear to those who come to mourn their loved ones, and to the small group who meet a share a coffee with her: the three gravediggers, the local undertakers and the parish priest. When one day a man turns up at the cemetery with a request that his mother's ashes be placed with a particular grave, Violette's life starts to take on a whole new course forwards as, at the same time, the narrative weaves back in time as we learn more about her past life and the heartaches she has suffered.
Beautifully written - and superbly translated by Hildegarde Serle - the stories of the main characters start to intertwine, and as we learn more then slowly we, as readers, start to change the way we judge some of them. The prose is often simple, meditative, reflective; each chapter opens with a saying or a quote, none of which are referenced or their source cited. In an interview, the translator revealed that these were either anonymous graveyard inscriptions or quotes from French songs and poems - but all of them mix with the story to give a general feeling of peace.
This could have veered into being just a little too schmaltzy, but the author avoids that. Ultimately it is a deeply affecting book about moving on, about finding peace and acceptance and that, when you least expect it, some happiness will come your way. I was in tears on many occasions, and the Toussaint family story will just break your heart. And there are also all the small stories of each of the deceased who come to be buried in the cemetery, reminding us that life is to be celebrated.
As a work of literature this is a wonderful, moving novel, but it is also a philosophical journey and meditation on life and death. Smile through the tears and wonder at the life force that is Violette Toussaint. Just a glorious and rewarding book. 5 stars for definite.
(With thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC of this title.)
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