Fresh Water for Flowers: OVER 1 MILLION COPIES SOLD

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Między ploteczkami grabarzy, między cotygodniowym obiadem z miejscowym księdzem, między porządkowaniem cmentarza – snuje się historia osobista kobiety, której życie nigdy nie oszczędzało. With Fresh Water for Flowers, Valérie Perrin gives readers the funny, moving, intimately told story of a woman who believes obstinately in happiness.

It is an absolute pleasure to be joining the blog tour today with my review of a book that just completely captivated me, a book littered with thought-provoking quotes that made me stop and think about so many different aspects of life. She has stories of almost all the graves she’s nurtured with love and grace over the last twenty years. It's then that Violette meets gorgeous, golden-haired twentysomething Phillipe Toussaint and instantly falls in love. A million seller in its native France, Perrin’s novel sees the world through the eyes of Violette, a cemetery caretaker, and the people who pass through her care, living and dead, with their stories and secrets. A heartwarming depiction of unexpected connection and the poetry of everyday life, Perrin’s beautifully observed story of a cemetery caretaker coming to terms with the loss of her daughter combines gentle humour with emotional insight to wondrous effect.

Valérie Perrin recorreu a todos os géneros literários para conseguir encher um número excessivo de páginas: romance, diário, mistério, conto de fadas, discursos fúnebres, epígrafes, fazendo até uma incursão muito subtil à autobiografia. quando se vive o que estou prestes a viver que se sabe que está tudo bem, que nada é grave, que o ser humano tem uma capacidade inaudita de se reconstruir, de cauterizar, como se houvesse várias camadas de pele umas sobre as outras. Violette was the sole cemetery keeper after Philippe became a police footnote, a "disappearance of concern".

This is a beautiful literary novel and the translation from French by Hildegarde Serle seems superb. She could occasionally be seen as a "fluttering ghost" on a unicycle scaring teenagers who, with beer in hand, ran screaming into the night heading for the cemetery gates! So far, it doesn’t seem like much of a story but it is so lyrical, so touching, so sad and so rewarding.Random visitors, regulars, and, most notably, her colleagues—three gravediggers, three groundskeepers, and a priest—visit her as often as possible to warm themselves in her lodge, where laughter, companionship, and occasional tears mix with the coffee that she offers them. This is a profoundly sad story, but at the same time it leaves the reader with a sense of hope and belief in the strength of a human heart. There's also a mysterious tragedy in the story, and exploring this event reveals dark secrets as well as hidden depths. Now an adult, her life has traversed a multitude of obstacles, having experienced many hardships that have shaped her into the solitary individual she is today. That voice—wry, incisive, self-aware, equal parts droll and melancholy—belongs to Violette Toussaint, who narrates most of Fresh Water for Flowers.

Passages that are often heartbreaking, but at the same time so lovely, meaningful, and that build upon the layers of the story previously created. Perrin’s writing is sublime, elegant,l yrical, melancholic, just beautiful; it is one of the best writing I have read for years. When the level crossing is automated and the couple lose their jobs, Philippe is dismayed by the thought of going to work.

However, Philippe was not a man too attached to home or his wife for very long, so this is really Violette’s story, and while it takes place in a somewhat melancholy setting, the story is so beautifully written that I found myself highlighting so many passages from the first page on. Anche se a qualche svolta lo scenario proposto non è dei più plausibili, la mia sospensione dell'incredulità non è mai venuta meno). Violette then grows up in a series of indifferent foster homes, and by the age of 17, is living in a hostel and working as a bartender. Un romanzo che emoziona perché la vita è protagonista assoluta, a maggior ragione nel luogo dove si celebra il lutto.

There are scenes where anticipation is palpable and scenes where lovers are in bed together for days. Violette seemed like enough to me, although I suppose it would be harder to appreciate the journey she makes from death back to life without the rich ambience the novel provides, in which life and love and loss and death and humor and tragedy and pain and beauty are constantly mingling and the sheer variety of human character and experience is a recurrent motif. If you enjoy character-driven stories about betrayal, loss, hope, and love, then this story is for you. Although I read the English version I felt steeped in the French way of life, its philosophy, culture, and food.

This beautifully-crafted tale highlights love, sadness, loss and gain in a special part of the world. Fresh Water for Flowers is about her choosing otherwise, eventually, which happens because the mother of a man named Julien Seul asked for her ashes to be placed on the tomb of a man he, Julien, doesn’t know. There is a large cast of likable unforgettable characters who cross Violette’s path, and we learn their story as Violette’s past and present life are slowly revealed. You see the potential and wish they could be the novel that you know it could be with the right editor and plenty of work thrown into it.