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A review by illustrated_librarian
Fresh Water for Flowers by Valérie Perrin
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Violette Toussaint is the caretaker of a cemetery in a small town in Bourgogne. Mourners and her colleagues - gravediggers, groundskeepers, and a priest - visit her to share their hilarious and touching confidences with her over cups of tea, or something a little stronger. Her routine is disrupted by the arrival of Julien Seul, following his mother's last wish to have her ashes deposited on the grave of a total stranger. The unfolding story of clandestine love cracks Violette's carefully built defences and excavates the losses of her past.
Valérie Perrin has done it again. She has such a knack for making it easy to care deeply for every character from the very beginning, they're written so humanely and intimitely they simply stroll off the page. Violette especially was fantastic and has become a new favourite heroine of mine; despite every hardship thrown at her, her determination, empathy, and capacity for joy run so deep.
This book is all about finding the poetic and beautiful in the everyday, how the small things can hold and heal you through the unimaginable. There is plenty of tragedy as the characters experience their fair share of heartbreak and grief, suffusing the book with a soft melancholy that is nonetheless not suffocating. Instead, quiet joys like friendship, food, and gardening are at the forefront of the story, with Perrin filling these comfortingly ordinary slice-of-life scenes with meticulous detail and warmth.
Each part of this many-stranded narrative was a joy to read, such that the almost 500 page length flew by. Every character copes with the hand they've been dealt a different way, ultimately choosing whether to be consumed by their difficulties or to find joy regardless. Being with these characters as they live alongside the hard things and let light in anyway struck a chord so powerfully I find it hard to put into words.
It's a gentle but moving journey through grief, acceptance, hope, and love. Ordinary and unhurried? Yes. But inconsequential? Not at all.
Valérie Perrin has done it again. She has such a knack for making it easy to care deeply for every character from the very beginning, they're written so humanely and intimitely they simply stroll off the page. Violette especially was fantastic and has become a new favourite heroine of mine; despite every hardship thrown at her, her determination, empathy, and capacity for joy run so deep.
This book is all about finding the poetic and beautiful in the everyday, how the small things can hold and heal you through the unimaginable. There is plenty of tragedy as the characters experience their fair share of heartbreak and grief, suffusing the book with a soft melancholy that is nonetheless not suffocating. Instead, quiet joys like friendship, food, and gardening are at the forefront of the story, with Perrin filling these comfortingly ordinary slice-of-life scenes with meticulous detail and warmth.
Each part of this many-stranded narrative was a joy to read, such that the almost 500 page length flew by. Every character copes with the hand they've been dealt a different way, ultimately choosing whether to be consumed by their difficulties or to find joy regardless. Being with these characters as they live alongside the hard things and let light in anyway struck a chord so powerfully I find it hard to put into words.
It's a gentle but moving journey through grief, acceptance, hope, and love. Ordinary and unhurried? Yes. But inconsequential? Not at all.