Fresh Water for Flowers

Written by Valérie Perrin

Narrated by Sara Young

Dubbed Italy’s favorite lockdown novel and full of French charm, this runaway bestseller is an intimately told story about a woman who believes obstinately in happiness.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dreamscape Media
• Translator: Hildegarde Serle
• Release date: Jun 1, 2021
• ISBN: 9781666538328

Valérie Perrin

Valérie Perrin is a photographer and screenwriter who works with Claude Lelouch. Her first novel, Les Oubliés du Dimanche, has won numerous prizes, including the 2016 Lire Élire and Poulet-Malassis. Fresh Water for Flowers is her English-language debut, translated by Hildegarde Serle.

Reviews for Fresh Water for Flowers

[Brigitta Ortan · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Complex and intricate novel. One of the best pieces of prose i have ever read. A wonderful story of lost children losing a child , a book about hope and new beginnings.

[Fauve13 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Delightful read. Finished this book over a snowy weekend! Very binge worthy and worth every moment. Excellent narrator.

[Angela Johns · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The characters are gripping and the story line intriguing. A bit slow but if you take your time it is enjoyable.

[Diana Dax · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is a gem of a book. It's about life and loss and everything, placed in an unusual setting. The book is amazingly written, captivating and created vivid imagery in my mind. You should definitely try it.

[Susan Bauer · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Beautiful complex characters and great storyline of eternal human searching.

[Nathalie · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Engaging. Unfortunately mispronounced French names creates a bit of a mess between men and women and otherwise painful distortions. Bilingual reader would be better suited for translated books.

[Aleksandra Jakovljev · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

It is beautiful, sincere and written at one unusual way, as a novel that I wanted to find a long time ago. Grateful also to the person who had been reading this book to us: very nice work!

[brenden · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Such an amazing story. 5 stars I simply loved it.

[Carole Dennis Cornell · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The characters, the love and hate, the culture in France.

[Janet Bradley · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I loved the juxtaposition between life and death, strength and weakness, light and dark. Chiaroscuro created with words. What a lovely book! The narration was less stellar. Pronunciation was all over the place and too often, pronunciation of words and names was cringe worthy. Camus, for example, has a silent ‘s’ - not only in France - but everywhere. Nadeje is a common French name - it is pronounced with two syllables not three. And why, when no one else in the entire book had an accent, did the gravediggers have inspector Clouseau-like accents? They sounded like a French version of The Three Musketeers!!! These are just a few examples. The book should have been read by someone fully bilingual. I wish that I had read it instead of listened to it. It is a beautiful story, very original and engaging.