Although I enjoyed parts of the book, I simply did not feel the urge to pick it up, and really struggled to read more than a few pages at a time. It felt predictable, the characters simply refused to come to life for me (with the exception of Violette herself) and the little philosophical observations often felt trite.
Yet there was something rather endearing about the Violette in this novel, a much put-upon woman with a good-for-nothing husband, who suffers that most unbearable of losses, the death of her young daughter. With her patience and openness to helping others (even when they take advantage of her), she reminded me of Felicité in Flaubert’s Un cœur simple.

I really wanted to love this book. It is very beautifully written - melancholy but also charmingly eccentric. The characters are rather delightful. But I just found it too slow to read. It seemed to drag more and more, although I’m not sure why. I ended up just glancing through the pages to get to the end. If I had not been reading a review copy I would not have finished it, sorry.

I am grateful for a review copy from the publishers via NetGalley.

'We have come here in search, in search of something or someone. In search of that love that is stronger than death.'

This is one of those books that just draws you in, wrings your heart out and leaves you, after the last page, emerging back into your world somehow profoundly changed. The story of Violette Toussaint (née Trenet), caretaker at a cemetery in a small French town, this develops slowly and in layers into a study of love, friendship and loss. Violette's husband, Philippe, is missing - not that she minds, for their marriage was not a happy one. Now she spends her days tending to the graves and lending a listening ear to those who come to mourn their loved ones, and to the small group who meet a share a coffee with her: the three gravediggers, the local undertakers and the parish priest. When one day a man turns up at the cemetery with a request that his mother's ashes be placed with a particular grave, Violette's life starts to take on a whole new course forwards as, at the same time, the narrative weaves back in time as we learn more about her past life and the heartaches she has suffered.

Beautifully written - and superbly translated by Hildegarde Serle - the stories of the main characters start to intertwine, and as we learn more then slowly we, as readers, start to change the way we judge some of them. The prose is often simple, meditative, reflective; each chapter opens with a saying or a quote, none of which are referenced or their source cited. In an interview, the translator revealed that these were either anonymous graveyard inscriptions or quotes from French songs and poems - but all of them mix with the story to give a general feeling of peace.

This could have veered into being just a little too schmaltzy, but the author avoids that. Ultimately it is a deeply affecting book about moving on, about finding peace and acceptance and that, when you least expect it, some happiness will come your way. I was in tears on many occasions, and the Toussaint family story will just break your heart. And there are also all the small stories of each of the deceased who come to be buried in the cemetery, reminding us that life is to be celebrated.

As a work of literature this is a wonderful, moving novel, but it is also a philosophical journey and meditation on life and death. Smile through the tears and wonder at the life force that is Violette Toussaint. Just a glorious and rewarding book. 5 stars for definite.

(With thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC of this title.)

With thanks to Netgalley and Europa edition

From the blurb of this book it seemed the type of book that I would normally go for. However there was just something about this book that didn't hold my interest.

Despite being set largely in the world of death, this is one of the most life-affirming books I have read. It is full of laughter, generosity, and warmth of spirit. It renders the ordinary and mundane in language that speaks with simple yet poetic eloquence.

Violette is a caretaker at a cemetery in the Bourgogne (Burgundy) region of France. Before that, she worked a level crossing gate. The cemetery has become her way of life.

Through and because of Violette, we meet several other people. The gravediggers, Nono, Gaston and Elvis, the Lucchini brothers who are the undertakers, and Father Cedric, the priest, all regularly visit her for coffee, food, and to talk. Sasha, Violette's predecessor, who teaches her life lessons as well as how to grow vegetables and flowers. Julien, the man who arrives one day with an unusual request, whose mother had a love affair with a lawyer buried in the cemetery.

Through Violette, we also meet her husband Philippe Toussaint, a man who has disappeared. The reasons why slowly emerge, against a backdrop of prose that slowly yet inexorably draws you under its spell.

Love is central to the book. The various relationships, the way in which people relate to each other, not always successfully. Love that is obsessive, love that has soured, love that clings to what it knows, love that is afraid to let go, love that keeps us locked in the routines that are familiar, love that learns how to breathe again.

Valerie Perrin gives us a central character who is believable and human, who finds a way of connecting with the life around her. She is funny, warm, sad, bruised, determined, resourceful, insecure, generous, and maternal. We cannot help but like her.

Sometimes, when a book is translated from its original language, it loses some of its meaning and atmosphere. Not so here. The translation perfectly renders the story.

This is a wonderful book and I cannot recommend it enough.

I was sent an advance review copy of this book by Europa Editions, in return for an honest appraisal.

This started out a solid 4 stars, but unfortunately my interest waned as I read on.

The setting is gorgeous, I requested this title solely based on the idea of a solitary woman keeping a graveyard with a peculiar assortment of colleagues. Violette and the rest of the cemetery gang are so fleshed out and interesting, and there are a dozen little quirks such as Violette remembering death dates and her wearing summer under winter clothing, that render her an endearing narrator.

If I'm honest there were too many twists and turns and split timelines and narratives, it got difficult to follow in parts and I gave up trying to remember the small details. There's too many arguments and secrets and deaths unrelated to the cemetery. Violette's sad past with Philippe Toussaint was actually infuriating rather than endearing, and as so many of these twists and turns are rooted in this past, I lost interest and skim read anything that wasn't direct action. Even with the skimming this was a very slow read, and I can't help but feel it could do with some trimming here and there.

I agree with other reviewers, I wanted to read more about the other cemetery staff and even Violette/Julien. I don't feel I really got what I came for.

I tried to love this book and I really wanted to. I just couldn’t. Parts were really engaging and I loved the quirkiness of it, others just dragged and I found myself skimming it. I’m sure if I could have stuck with it I would have loved it but I found it too easy to put down and too hard to pick back up again. I will try again with this one.

Violette Toussaint is the caretaker of the cemetery at Brancion-en-Chalon. She lives alone in a small house on the cemetery grounds, a haven for visitors often racked by grief, to whom Violette offers warmth, solace… and tea. Violette’s family are the pets she keeps and her regular colleagues-of-sort – the three gravediggers, Nono, Gaston, and Elvis; the three undertakers, Pierre, Paul, and Jacques (also known as the Lucchini brothers) and Father Cédric Duras, who officiates at most of the funerals in this largely Catholic area.

Violette is elegant, suave, sophisticated. But just as her dark “winter” coats often cover colourful “summer” clothing, Violette has a hidden history which has led her, via several winding roads, to this little village in Bourgogne. We learn that Violette has reinvented herself, setting off from a childhood in fostering and surviving a painful marriage before settling down as the lady of the cemetery.

The narration, largely in the likeable voice of Violette, alternates between her present experiences and her past life. But then matters start becoming complicated. One day, a police officer named Julien Seul, turns up at Violette’s door. His mother has left instructions that her ashes be laid on the tomb of a distinguished lawyer in the cemetery, revealing, after her death, a passionate clandestine affair. Violette helps Julien to come to terms with this discovery. But Julien’s arrival on the scene also rakes up a tragic mystery – the grief-shaped core of Violette’s past.

Antonio D’Orrico, writing in Il Corriere della Sera described Fresh Water for Flowers as the “most beautiful novel in the world”. I am generally loath to heap such unreserved praise on any book, because I’m aware how much depends on the reader’s taste. But I came across a particular passage in this book which sums up what I felt when I finished the novel:

I close Irène’s journal with a heavy heart. The way one closes a novel one has fallen in love with. A novel that’s a friend from whom it’s hard to part, because one wants it close by, in arm’s reach.

To me, Fresh Water for Flowers is one of those novels. It’s too early to say whether it will prove to be a memorable one and it might soon be replaced in my fickle affections. But, at least for its duration, it made me want to return to its fictional world and ensconce myself between its pages. The various narrative strands, including the rather unexpected introduction of a “mystery story” element around half the way through, engaged my interest. But what I possibly found more engaging is the style, the surprisingly effective mix of pathos and humour, tragedy and hope, laced with more than a dose of romance. The titles of each of the short chapters, evidently inspired by funerary epigraphs, more often than not provide an oblique commentary on the content of the chapter.

Perrin is a screenwriter and I can easily imagine the novel and its witty dialogue being turned into a quintessentially French movie, with a central character played by Juliette Binoche or Audrey Tautou, and a supporting cast of bantering, quirky characters. The book even suggests its own soundtrack, with various references to French songs and occasional snatches of Bach and Chopin. It is, in fact, a very “sensual” novel, not just in the sense of being about passion, but because of its assault on the senses – its passages are rich in colours, sounds, flavours, fragrances.

This marks Valérie Perrin’s English debut. Hildegarde Serle deserves praise for her translation, which reads effortlessly and musically, and makes one forget that the novel was originally in a very different language.

In the notes about the author, Valerie Perrin is described as a screenwriter and photographer and that is exactly how this novel comes across - as a film, brimming with beautifully composed shots, especially amongst the gravestones. I enjoyed the atmosphere she conjures of an oasis of calm in a tough world. The main themes of the story are grief, regret, misunderstanding and emotional reticence in the lives of the main characters, highlighted by some moving epitaphs from the cemetery at the beginning of each chapter.

Some lovely writing. As an example, I particularly liked this passage:

‘You can make out their little bodies, top to tail, under the tangled sheets and blankets. Their dark hair on the two white pillows, like a piece of the countryside sticking out, a little path smelling of hazelnut. Running your fingers through a child’s hair is like walking on the dead leaves in a forest at the start of spring.’

The French flavour appealed to me - who knew they ate so many fried eggs? Part mystery, part romance, the story progresses very slowly over very many pages to a perfectly satisfactory ending. Recommended.

A sweet book which sometimes tips over into the sentimental - but that's ok for when you're in the mood for something bittersweet and romantic. In that sense it made me think of 'The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society' especially in the way this merges tragedy with gentle humour and an essentially sunny outlook. At times it feels a bit overlong, and I wanted more from Violette's quirky colleagues. A simple style makes this ideal summer reading.

Wonderful read a cemetery a caretaker a story that draws you in.A book that’s quirky a relationship between the female caretaker and a policeman who comes carrying ashes to the cemetery.A story that will keep you turning the pages so unique so entertaining really enjoyed.#netgalley#europabooks