Fresh Water for Flowers
Ratings3
Average rating4.7
15
Ratings3
Average rating4.7
An eccentric young caretaker brings exuberant life to a smalltown French cemetery in this #1 international bestselling novel: “Enchanting” (Publishers Weekly). Violette Toussaint is the caretaker at a cemetery in a small town in Bourgogne, France. Traversing the grounds by unicycle, tending to her many gardens—and being present for the intimate, often humorous confidences of visitors—Violette’s life follows the predictable rhythms of mourning. But then Violette’s routine is disrupted by the arrival of Julien Sole, the local police chief. Julien has come to scatter the ashes of his recently deceased mother on the gravesite of a complete stranger. It soon becomes clear that Julien’s inexplicable gesture is intertwined with Violette’s own complicated past. “Melancholic and yet ebullient . . . An appealing indulgence in nature, food and drink, and, above all, friendships.” —The Guardian, UK
Reviews with the most likes.
“As I go to bed, I think how awful it would be to die in the middle of reading a good novel.”
This was one of the most beautiful books I've read in recent years. Valérie writing is beautiful, and I lost count of how many times the story broke my heart and put it together just to break it later again.
It is one of those books you just need to slow down the reading speed to savor each words and let the sentences fill your heart and soul. I cried, smiled, and now I'm not sure what to do with myself.
Violette is a cemetery caretaker, and though this might appear to be a terrible sad job and environment, it ends up being more about a celebration of love and life. About picking up broken pieces and find ways to move on, watering what can grow and keep living. It depends on the lens we choose to use when looking at death, and this novel shows it perfectly.
”Do not stand at my grave and weep, I am not there, I do not sleep. I am a thousand winds that blow.”“When we miss one person, everywhere becomes deserted”
This story, as life, is full of lovely and awful characters, good, neutral, bad and terrible moments. It shows different forms of grief, love and the normalcy of living.
“It will avoid unspoken resentment, lamentment, and all that.” “What's lamentment'?”“It's a word I invented to combine melancholy, guilt, regrets, steps forward, and steps backward. Everything that really bugs us in life, in other words. That holds us back.”
I might reread it in Portuguese as, although the English translation is beautiful, I just know it would translate better to other neo-latin language. I wished I knew French enough to read the original version.
“Make love. I'd like to take off all your beige and make you see all the colors of the rainbow.““I have absolutely no desire that, one day, your ashes end up on my tomb. I couldn't care less, in fact. I want to live with you now, right now. While we can still gaze at the sky together . . . Even when it's pouring like today.”
This novel is also a mystery book, and although I enjoyed it a bit less when the mystery kicked in, I couldn't rate something that left me this emotional with less than 5 stars.
It might not be for everyone one as it is very “French”/ “European” and it includes themes that I know bother a lot of readers. If you don't mind reading about those, do pick up this book! It is worthy!
TW - Cheating, loss of a child, sexual assault, death
