Fresh Water for Flowers

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Violette decides to not attend her daughter’s burial and goes to Marseilles to her friend, Celia. It was at Celia’s chalet where she used to spend the summers with Léonine. She almost drowns there, but Celia rescues her. Violette goes into a daze and begins to drink heavily. One day, she comes across a list of people who had been the last ones to see Léonine.

Her neighbours are the dead and she lives in the heaven of the living, at the mid-range of life having been through plenty of pain and suffering to get there. She is now being rewarded, she has found her place and her people and those who deserved to be part of it, have found her too.Until my first novel, Les Oubliés Du Dimanche. I sent it to an editor in December 2013, and signed my publishing contract in January 2014. Could you elaborate a little on what you hope your readers will love, in Fresh Water For Flowers? This book is guaranteed to move you— halfway through, I noticed how choked up I was.....and soon I was crying.

A couple more things to share - but I don’t want to spoil the actual story about Violette....and her LIFE....( her circumstances, history, people she meets, her gifts, or even too much about her charming unique character).... A forgotten history. A secret network of women. A legacy of poison and revenge. Welcome to The Lost Apothecary… It's a compact book with many characters that tells many sorts of tales and shows us many types of lives. From cradle to grave: ah yes, the grave. Death. Violette tends the monuments large and small with tender care, ensuring they're kept manicured. Sometimes she tends those who come to visit a grave. She brings the care to caretaker. There's a priest and Violette too comforts every soul that seeks it from her. An epitaph is at the top of every chapter. This story is so full of people, their sorrows and passions, their hopes and secrets. Love and longing plays a huge part in the story and the stories are told over a myriad of timelines. For the last 30 years Violette has had her cemetery, garden, cats, dogs, and the people that work there or visit regularly. This is her holding pattern and she doesn't expect anything more than what she has right now. Valerie Perrin's translated novel is a pitch perfect meditation on life, death, love, marriage, motherhood, tragedy, loss, grief, and learning to live after the worst has happened. Violette Touissant is the reclusive cemetery keeper at Brancon-en-Chalon, a position she acquired after years working as a level crossing keeper. Her husband, Philippe, has abandoned her, her daily life consists of a small circle of colleagues and friends that she provides coffee and food for, the 3 grave diggers, Nono, Gaston and Elvis, the Luccini brothers, the undertakers, and Father Cedric Duras. The cemetery is maintained in a immaculate condition, with Violette growing a bountiful variety of vegetables, selling flowers, cleaning tombs, chatting to the dead, keeping records of the funerals of the dead, and looking after those who visit the cemetery.Hildegarde Serle graduated in French from Oxford University. After working as a newspaper sub-editor in London for many years, she obtained the Chartered Institute of Linguists Diploma in Translation. She is the translator of A Winter’s Promise and The Missing Of Clairdelune. Valerie shares her joy at her book’s success with My Weekly fiction editor Claire Gill… When did you start writing fiction? The book concludes with a sense of redemption and a newfound sense of peace for Violette. How does she find closure and a fresh start after the tumultuous events of her life? What role does Julien play in her journey towards healing and rebuilding? It was the room for “desperate cases, tears, confidences, anger, size, despair, and the laughter of the gravediggers”. What an absolutely phenomenal book! The perfect book to start 2021. I have a feeling that this one already made it to my top ten of 2021.

Valérie Perrin strategically delays the introduction of Julien by name to build suspense and intrigue in the narrative. How does this technique contribute to the reader’s engagement with the story? How would the dynamics between Violette and Julien have evolved if they had known each other’s names from the beginning?Fresh Water for Flowers by Valerie Perrin is a moving novel of love, loss , grief and life. The protagonist Violette is a cemetery keeper who lives alone in a house on the premises of the cemetery she looks after. Abandoned by her husband years ago she spends her days taking great care of the cemetery , growing flowers , cleaning headstones , reading epitaphs and meeting people to whom she provides comfort in their times of bereavement and distress. Remarkably, this is a gentle tale in that it is Violette who sets the tone of the story. Although her life seems to be one tragedy after another, she perseveres. She creates moments of tenderness. Perrin’s lyrical style of writing makes this a tender read. Themes of grief, loneliness, faith, death, marriage, parenting are explored with care. Violette remained steadfast in her compassion and empathy towards others.

Fresh Water for Flowers is a saga of a woman’s life from nothing to something…A story representative of many girls and women trapped by social and financial circumstances.”— The Winnipeg Free Press Additional Recommendations Julien is not the only one to guard a painful secret: his mother’s story of clandestine love breaks through Violette’s carefully constructed defences to reveal the tragic loss of her daughter, and her steely determination to find out who is responsible. Violette also likes the people she works with: the gravediggers/caretakers - Nono; Gaston; and Elvis; the undertakers - Pierre, Paul and Jacques Lucchini; and the priest - Father Cedric Duras. These colleagues frequently drop into Violette's house, for a cup of coffee and a chat. Violette’s upbringing was devoid of love until later in her life. In what ways do you see her difficult childhood shaping her perceptions of relationships and her interactions with others? How does this affect her journey towards healing and self-discovery?Join us as we dive into this saga of life’s complexities, where love, loss, and yearning intermingle, and discover a story that resonates with the experiences of countless women facing social and financial challenges. This is a beautifully written story of tragic loss and grief, but it is tempered by friendship and beautiful memories and love. Violette Toussaint has been the caretaker of a cemetery for twenty years . A recluse in a way, at night when it’s quiet and the people she interacts, with the gravediggers - Nono, Gaston, Elvis , the undertakers - the Lucchini brothers and the priest Cedric have left for the day. She interacts with others, as well, those who bury, those who mourn. I found it so moving how reverential and respectful, Violette was to those who were buried there as she meticulously records their funerals, the celebrations of their lives, and tends to the graves when families are unable to with flowers. It’s a wonder how she is able to do this when she is filled with grief of her own, but as her story unfolds, we understand why she is there. She hasn’t had a happy life, with exception of the years with her daughter Leonine. Abandoned at birth, moving from foster home to foster home, she seeks solace in a marriage which isn’t a happy one.