Fresh Water for Flowers

De: Valérie Perrin

Narrado por: Sara Young

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

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.

Good story but terrible pronunciation of french

I enjoyed the story but was astonished to hear french words and names
botched. I would’ve thought the narrator would have been given a few french lessons at the very least.

Skip the audio

The narration was horrible! Find a French person for a book that was originally written in French!

Long & Complicated Saga

Struggled to finish this one. At times the intertwined storylines became confusing. Based on the description I did not enjoy it as much as I thought I would.

Beautiful story!

Sara Young has the perfekt dreamy voice for this story!!! Exelent performance! I will search for more by this author and more with this narator.

Could have been great.

I wish I had read this one. I found it hard to listen and follow the timelines and characters as they jumped all over the place.

Compelling story

Some of the French words are mispronounced. Maybe even all. But the beauty of not speaking it, is that it doesn't bother me. The story itself is interesting. There are descriptions that made me tear up - especially since i am a parent of a young girl. I wanted to finish it and know what happened.

Much too Long

The repeated and extremely long lists of rambling descriptions of people and places are very annoying. The mystery of the death of the protagonist’s daughter is clumsy and awkward. I can’t understand the popularity of this waster of time. Finished it only because it is the choice of my book club. The performance is embarrassing.

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.

Enjoyed the pacing

I heard that this book is a bestseller in France so I decided to try it out. I really enjoyed the French setting and the pacing of this book. It felt very French to me, such a refreshing change from my usual American authors. I thought the narrator did an excellent job too, she kept me very engaged.