FRESH WATER FOR FLOWERS BY VALERIE PERRIN
PAPERBACK PUBLISHED BY EUROPA EDITIONS 10TH JUNE 2021
Over 1 millions copies sold worldwide International No 1 Bestseller
violette Toussaint is the caretaker at a cemetery in a small town in Bourgogne. Her daily life is lived to the rhythms of the hilarious and touching confidences of random visitors and her colleagues three gravediggers, three groundskeepers, and a priest.
Violette’s routine is disrupted one day by arrival police chief Julien Seul, wishing to deposit his mother’s ashes on the gravesite of a complete stranger. Julien is not the only one to guard a painful secret his mother’s story of clandestine love breaks through Violette’s carefully constructed defences to reveal the tragic loss of her daughter, and her steely determination to find out who is responsible.
An unforgettable story of love and loss told through the life of a woman who believes obstinately in happiness. Touching on the deepest aspects of human life, Fresh Water for Flowers brings out the exceptional and the poetic in the ordinary and reminds us the life affirming value of kindness.
MY REVIEW
The book I read 2day is Fresh Water for Flowers, one that I throughly enjoyed every single page.
With reading this type of book involving a cemetery keeper it’s brought it home to me to give my appreciation to cemetery keepers. At times it’s hard not to get caught up with emotions, but at the same time it is without question one the most best original stories I have read. Valerie Perrin sets the scenes that makes you feel like you know violette and cemetery that she runs.
Fresh Water for Flowers is told in the voice of Violette taking us through the stages of what’s involved in her day to day running of her cemetery.
Fresh Water for Flowers is an unique beautifully written story, one that grabbed my attention from the first page, This story made me believe in every word that Violette said and everything with Violette’s day to day schedules of running her cemetery.
The story is quite believable that’s how I can see why this book is the international No 1 bestseller.
I recommend Fresh Water for Flowers by Valerie Perrin as it’s mesmerising and a compassionate story with beautifully well written chapters all the way through, one paperback not to be missed.
Violette was sadly given away at birth and given a different surname, she only became Toussaint after marrying Phillipe Toussaint.
Violette and her husband lost their jobs as a level-crossing keeper. They both needed a job, after Violette finds a job advertising for a cemetery keeper at Brancion-en – Chalon, They both become the new cemetery keeper with a salary and on site accommodation . There would be nothing for either of them to do as they will already have three gravediggers three undertakers.
The cemetery is beautiful with the avenues lined with centenarian linden trees. It is Violette’s job is to keep the register and records of all the burials and exhumations. Violette is always very be discreet and full of compassion to those who have to bury a loved one. I could really feel the atmosphere of the well keep grounds and the accommodation that Violette and her husband live in.
The one thing that keeps Violette busy is by selling potted plants and when they are no longer worth selling she puts them in abandoned graves.
It’s not long before violette becomes to know everyone, even the locals who don’t yet have any one dead at her cemetery. All of the people have passed through the cemetery at least once, for a burial of a friend or neighbour or a colleague’s mother.
If you buy this book I do hope that you will all enjoy reading it as much as what I did as there’s far more that happens throughout this brilliant story to keep you all wrapped up in.
MY SPECIAL THANKS TO
My hand on my heart I really would like to thank Midas and Europa Editions fir sending me this beautiful paperback to read and review.
WHAT HAS BEEN SAID ABOUT FRESH WATER FOR FLOWERS….
Melancholic and yet ebullient: The Guardian
Valerie Perrin’s delightful Fresh Water for Flowers is funny and moving story of one woman’s belief that everything will turn out right : Stylist
A tender and poignant exploration of love, loss and redemption : publishers Weekly.
A beautiful, intensely atmosphere bittersweet dream of a book : Matt Haig.
ABOUT AUTHOR VALERIE PERRIN
Valerie Perrin is a photographer and screenwriter who works with Claude Lelouch . Her first novel, Les Oublies du Dimanche, won numerous prizes including the 2016 Lire Elire and Poulet-Malassis. Fresh Water for Flowers is her first novel to be translated into English and an international sensation.
About the translator
Hildegarde Serle graduated in French from Oxford University. After working for a newspaper subeditor in London for many years, she obtained the Chartered Institute of Linguists Diploma in Translation. She is the translator of A Winter Promise and The Missing of Clairdelune, atmospheric, absorbing tale.
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