Fresh Water for Flowers is a book that is too easy to spoil and I'm proud that as of this writing all of the top reviews are by GR Friends of mine and not one has a spoiler. Fala za falą, czytelnika ogarnia poruszenie, zaraz rozbawienie, znów wzruszenie, głęboka zaduma… Valérie Perrin napisała opowieść, w której mieszają się słowa francuskich klasycznych piosenek, poetyckich wersów, mniejszych i większych życiowych mądrości, a wszystko to napisane z taką prostotą!

My heart opened up to and embraced Violette, dealing with the challenging set of cards that life had dealt her, her compassion in her everyday life of trying to make life easier for the grieving, and the respect and reverence she extends to those beyond the grave. The grave Julien is looking for, and his mother’s story of clandestine love, is intertwined with Violette’s own secret past. To zapach cynamonu i wanilii, to ciche słowa szeptane o zmierzchu i nucone pod nosem piosenki Elvisa. Love and longing plays a huge part in the story and the stories are told over a myriad of timelines.I was learning a subtle lesson from the intricate lush details - about how to live fully immersed with what so many others have kept silent. That voice—wry, incisive, self-aware, equal parts droll and melancholy—belongs to Violette Toussaint, who narrates most of Fresh Water for Flowers. There are also so many passages throughout the book that I just had to highlight, but more so passages that made me pause and reflect over so many times throughout the entire story. Perrin é a actual companheira de Claude Lelouch, o realizador do extraordinário “Les Uns et Les Autres”, tendo sido também cenógrafa em alguns dos seus filmes. 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.

Violette Touissant is the reclusive cemetery keeper at Brancon-en-Chalon, a position she acquired after years working as a level crossing keeper. Anche se a qualche svolta lo scenario proposto non è dei più plausibili, la mia sospensione dell'incredulità non è mai venuta meno).Multi-layered, full of depth, and handling the concept of death and all that surrounds it so well, this book really is something special. When the book opens we learn Violette is the caretaker of a cemetery and that her husband has disappeared. This story sometimes felt like a song, a fairy tale, a poem and it challenged me to keep up with it. Violette foi abandonada pela mãe à nascença e conheceu várias famílias de acolhimento, mas isso não a tornou amarga nem revoltada. It was the room for “desperate cases, tears, confidences, anger, size, despair, and the laughter of the gravediggers”.