A review by abbie_
Fresh Water for Flowers by Valérie Perrin

emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I absolutely fell in love with Fresh Water for Flowers by Valérie Perrin (tr. Hildegarde Serle), a gorgeous and melancholic tale of grief, friendship, hope and love.
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There are many strands to this story and I don’t want to spoil any of them. But Perrin makes you care deeply about every character in this book, all of them meticulously detailed and developed so they feel like real people from the very start. The main character, Violette, has become one of my very favourite characters of all time. Despite the hardships and trauma she’s faced in her life, her well of caring for her friends runs incredibly deep.
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I was struck by the detail in this book. Perrin takes great care with setting up every scene. Violette is a cemetery keeper for most of the book and we become intimately acquainted with the daily runnings of the graveyard, the other people who work there and all of their quirks. It’s unlike anything I’ve read before. The way Perrin describes the minutiae of everyday life is just delightful; gardening, friendship and food take centre stage in Fresh Water for Flowers, and it has that wonderful knack of making the reader immediately want to go and live that sort of life. Perrin is also a master at bringing to life less tangible concepts, like the grief and hope.
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The intertwining storylines and the flawless translation make this near-500 page book progress effortlessly, so please don’t be put off by the size.
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Now if you don’t mind, I’m off to make enquiries about open cemetery keeper positions in the French countryside 
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