Fresh Water for Flowers

By: Valérie Perrin

Narrated by: Sara Young

Length: 14 hrs and 42 mins

Publisher's summary

Violette Toussaint is the caretaker at a cemetery in a small town in Bourgogne. Casual mourners, regular visitors, and sundry colleagues - gravediggers, groundskeepers, and a priest - visit her to warm themselves in her lodge, where laughter, companionship, and occasional tears mix with the coffee she offers them. Her life is lived to the rhythms of their funny, moving confidences. 

But her routine is disrupted by the arrival of the local police chief, who insists on scattering the ashes of his recently deceased mother on the gravesite of a complete stranger. Soon it becomes clear that his inexplicable gesture is intertwined with Violette’s own difficult past. 

With Fresh Water for Flowers, Valérie Perrin has given listeners an intimately told story that tugs on the heartstrings about a woman who believes obstinately in happiness, despite it all. A number-one best seller in France, it is a heartwarming and tender story that will stay with listeners long after they finish it.

©2020 Valérie Perrin (P)2021 Dreamscape Media, LLC

A great story, an appalling reading

How could so many mistakes be made in one reading? Valerie Perrin must be beside herself. All French names in this recording are deformed so much that a French speaker might have difficulty understanding the protagonists’ role and the story itself. It is shocking to hear such a poor rendering of French names and French languages.

Great story, poor narration

If you are not familiar with the French language, you might find the narration acceptable. If you know French, you will find so many mispronunciations that listening to this book is like listening to 11 hours of chalk grating on a blackboard. Does no one at Dreamscape Productions know French? No one there to help this poor narrator master the simplest words rather than mispronounce them over and over? All the mistakes make the production seem sloppy.

The story is intriguing and the characters well developed. I recommend this book, but READ IT. DON’T listen to the audio book.

Would not recommend

Although the story was somewhat interesting, it did jump around considerably.
My biggest problem was with the narration, the mispronunciations of French terminology when the story is set in France is unforgivable.

Attention narrators: research please!

Too much work went into the writing and translating of this novel to have it virtually destroyed by a narrator who could not make the effort to research the approximate pronunciation of French names, place names and objects. Normally, I would have returned such a misguided rendering but I really wanted to discuss the plot of the book with a friend. What could Dreamscape Publishing be thinking? A few egregious examples: the name of an important character, a woman named Francoise, is pronounced like the male name François. (Fran-swah as opposed to Frahn-swahz). The word "centimes" is incorrectly pronounce as if spelled "son-tymes". These are basic errors and the correct forms are easily found online with vocalized examples. It's very simple to search for the correct pronunciation of a foreign word. Place names: Nancy is once pronounced like the American girl's name and once pronounced "Non-see" which is correct. Inconsistent, easily resolvable mistakes made this book an arduous listen for me. If your eyes are fine, I recommend that you read the print version.

don't listen

Reviewers raved about this book. My friends loved it, so I slogged through it, but didn't like it at all. I''m guessing that the print version is wonderful, but this is one of those books that doesn't work at all in audio. There are too many characters, and long, convoluted sub-plots, and the narrator had no ability at all to create distinct voices. There were few clues in the text, so most of the time I had no idea which character was speaking. After 13 hours, I still didn't know who many of the characters were, and couldn't bring myself to care even a little about their story lines. That said, the main character is lovely, and I would have enjoyed just her story, which was well-developed and poignant. If I'd been reading it, I'm guessing the confusion about characters would have been minimal, and I could have skimmed through the long and often irrelevant parts.

Not compelling

I thought the premise was interesting based on the summary but the writing is too simple.

Also, if a reader is going to read in French, then pronunciation should be correct and it isn't here. For me, that is very irritating.

Good story, terrible reader

Whose idea was it to use fake New York Bronx accents and fake deep voices for male characters? The producer? The actress? I don’t know but it made for a very unpleasant audio. Too bad because the story is great.

Engaging story

Though it contains dark themes of death, this is an engaging story, a good mystery and a lively travelogue of French life. Plus, there is an underlying story of resilience and starting anew.

Loved this book!

This is a book that deserves a wider readership. Fresh Water for Flowers wasn’t even on my radar when it was chosen as the January book for my book club. It’s such a beautifully written story. You feel like you’re making a new friend and learning about her in pieces.

Awful Narration

Completely ruined the book. Was narrated like a child’s fairytale during library hour with exaggerated voicing and big bad wolf voices.

Good story but TERRIBLE TERRIBLE french accent

This is a really interesting story and very unusual. But please - why, when there are so many french names to speak, choose a narrator who has zero grasp of french pronunciation. If the story had t been so good I would have given up pretty early on. Would advise reading this book not listening to it.

Interesting story, appalling narration

As many others have said, why was this given to someone with no idea how to pronounce French? It really grated on me.
I contemplated abandoning it for the actual book but persevered to the end.
That’s said, the story is good and many of the characters interesting and well developed. I love the idea of being a cemetery keeper like Violette.
I would recommend and look forward to reading more by this author. I will not be listening to any more by this narrator.

Very poor narration

Who on earth thought it was a good idea to give the narration of this book to someone with a grating voice and no idea of French pronunciation?.
I gave up on it after a few chapters when I just could not listen any more and have bought the print copy so that I can work out the exact places mentioned rather than the incomprehensible names given by the narrator.
I suspect I will enjoy the story much more by reading it.

Fantastic story terrible french accent

The story was superb! Very well written. loved it! BUT I cringed every time the narrator said a french name, place or phrase.

Lovely story, terrible performance.

I was so frustrated at the readers french pronunciation!!! Kept at it because it’s a lovely story…

would give one star but can't !

Too choppy for comfort, too many words, distractingly pedantic and rambling, sorry would not recommend.

A big disappointment

I’m afraid I did not like this book, despite its glorious reviews. I found it went on and on with tales of little interest, a multitude of characters weaving through at different time lines, that was supposed to grab us and our attention. I just found it disinteresting and disjointed. What was the point of the book? It was just a lot of words and fairly insignificant events, weaved and repeated again and again.
As for the narration, I found it annoying that the reader had little experience with French pronunciation. I know the book was in English, but as a French translation it contained a multitude of French names and words that should have been pronounced properly for the prose to flow, and also to better understanding.

Boring

So boring. Repetitive, seemed like it was much longer. Finished reading it and still have no idea who most of the people in the book were and how they were linked.

Pleasant enough story but dragged on.

Story started off well but didn't finish it as not captivated enough and at least an hour too long.

I wanted to like this but…..

the narrator has a distractingly diabolical French accent. I got halfway through before giving up. Had the story even started by then?