Join us

Facebook
Twitter
Instagram
Newsletter

Valérie Perrin

Fresh Water for Flowers

Cover: Fresh Water for Flowers - Valérie Perrin

Valérie Perrin

Fresh Water for Flowers

2021, pp. 304, Paperback
ISBN: 9781787703117
Translated by: Hildegarde Serle
Region: France
Book collection: Europa B-formats
Available as ebook Available as ebook Available as ebook
£ 9.99

The book

*A NUMBER 1 INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER*
*OVER 1 MILLION COPIES SOLD WORLDWIDE*

“An appealing indulgence in nature, food and drink, and, above all, friendships.”—The Guardian

A poignant bestselling novel full of French charm and memorable characters.

Violette Toussaint is the caretaker at a cemetery in a small town in Bourgogne. Her daily life is lived to the rhythms of the hilarious and touching confidences of random visitors and her colleagues.

Violette’s routine is disrupted one day by the arrival of a local police chief, Julien Seul, who insists on depositing the ashes of his mother on the gravesite of a complete stranger. The grave Julien is looking for, and his mother’s story of clandestine love, is intertwined with Violette’s own secret past.

The funny, moving, intimately told story of a woman who believes obstinately in happiness, Fresh Water for Flowers brings out the exceptional and the poetic in the ordinary. A delightful, atmospheric, absorbing tale.


What readers are saying:

“I'd read this book over and over again”
“One of those books that you don’t want to end”
“Absolutely amazing story”
“This is one of the BEST BOOKS EVER WRITTEN!”
“A really moving story of hope love and determination”
“this is one of the most life-affirming books I have read”

The author

Valérie Perrin
Valérie Perrin was born in 1967 in Remiremont, in the Vosges Mountains, France. She grew up in Burgundy and settled in Paris in 1986. Her novel The Forgotten Sunday (2015) won the Booksellers Choice Award and the paperback edition has been long-selling best-seller since publication. Her English-language debut, Fresh Water for Flowers (Europa, 2020) won the Maison de la Presse Prize, the Paperback Readers Prize, and was named a 2020 ABA Indies Introduce and Indie Next List title. It has been translated into over thirty languages. Figaro Littéraire named Perrin one of the ten best-selling authors in France in 2019, and in Italy, Fresh Water for Flowers was the best selling book of 2020. Perrin now lives in Normandy.

Books by region

  • Cover: All That Remains - Virginie Grimaldi

    Virginie Grimaldi

    All That Remains

    2025, pp. 284, £ 10.99
    A funny and moving story of unlikely friendship from the internationally bestselling author of A Good Life
  • Cover: Gabriële - Anne Berest, Claire Berest

    Anne Berest, Claire Berest

    Gabriële

    2025, pp. 432, £ 18.99
    The passionate love affair that triggered a revolution, and the story of a remarkable woman living in extraordinary times
  • Cover: Dogs and Wolves - Hervé Le Corre

    Hervé Le Corre

    Dogs and Wolves

    2024, pp. 288, £ 14.99
    A gripping noir about the blossoming of poisonous passions.
  • Cover: The Postcard - Anne Berest

    Anne Berest

    The Postcard

    2024, pp. 480, £ 9.99
    A moving novel based on the true story of a familys endurance and pain, and a heartfelt exploration of Jewish identity in a secular society...
  • Cover: A Good Life - Virginie Grimaldi

    Virginie Grimaldi

    A Good Life

    2024, pp. 288, £ 9.99
    An emotional and uplifting novel from the French Marian Keyes
  • Cover: Paradises Lost - Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt

    Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt

    Paradises Lost

    2024, pp. 480, £ 14.99
    The beginning of a unique adventure, the tremendous challenge of recounting the history of humanity.

More suggestions

  • Cover: Fathers and Fugitives - S J Naudé

    S J Naudé

    Fathers and Fugitives

    2025, pp. 192, £ 9.99
    An inventive and emotionally charged novel about fatherhood and family, loyalty and betrayal, inheritance and belonging.
  • Cover: The Gowkaran Tree in the Middle of Our Kitchen - Shokoofeh Azar

    Shokoofeh Azar

    The Gowkaran Tree in the Middle of Our Kitchen

    2025, pp. 400, £ 16.99
    From International Booker Prize finalist Shokoofeh Azar, a stylistically audacious and emotionally powerful novel about one large, complicated family...
  • Cover: All That Remains - Virginie Grimaldi

    Virginie Grimaldi

    All That Remains

    2025, pp. 284, £ 10.99
    A funny and moving story of unlikely friendship from the internationally bestselling author of A Good Life
  • Cover: Shibboleth - Thomas Peermohamed Lambert

    Thomas Peermohamed Lambert

    Shibboleth

    2025, pp. 384, £ 14.99
    A darkly comic tale that brings the satirical English campus novel into the divided, multicultural, hyperactive present day.
  • Cover: City of Fiction - Yu Hua

    Yu Hua

    City of Fiction

    2025, pp. 352, £ 14.99
    A story of love, blood and dreams, set in early 20th century China
  • Cover: The Brittle Age - Donatella Di Pietrantonio

    Donatella Di Pietrantonio

    The Brittle Age

    2025, pp. 192, £ 14.99
    A powerful mother-and-daughter story, a profound exploration of human fragility, and of the haunting shadows of the past