Freshwater for Flowers

A lonely, middle aged woman tending to a graveyard somewhere in a small town in France. Sounds macabre, doesn’t it? You couldn’t be more mistaken.

Violette Toussaint is almost fifty and seem to be at peace with herself, tending to the graves and her plants. The two helpers are as lonely and odd in their ways as she. The story unfolds slowly, the layers getting unpeeled in a slow and graceful pace . She has grown up in foster homes, and was a bar tender when she met the flamboyant Philippe Toussaint. They are married soon enough, the reality of what he is hits her only later. Emotionally distant and irresponsible, Philippe is busy with his biking trips and video games while Violette is left with running the house. Before long, they start working as railroad level-cross keepers and lives in a small house close to the tracks. Their daughter Leonine sparks life into Violette, but tragedy strikes soon enough. The events that follow brings Sasha, the grave yard keeper into Violette’s life and she sort of inherits the job from him.

Violette knows the regular visitors to the cemetery and many of their family secrets too. When Julien Seul, a detective from Marseilles arrives with his mother’s ashes to be placed near the grave of a man who is a complete stranger to him. Little does she know how his story is entwined to hers as well. The story weaves in and out, between past and present, through the many characters that have an impact on Violette’s life.

It is a tale that is so well told, of life, death, betrayal, deep friendships, and finding happiness in the most unlikely places. Just when you think you have seen through all the twists and turns, comes the most unexpected one of all, a turn around a murder mystery, if you may call it so.

I loved how each character is built, with their back stories that explains their behavior, good and bad. No one is completely evil, there is a reason to who they are. Isn’t it how it is with each of us too? This is one of those books that has so well explained what ‘layering’ in writing means. As each story is unraveled, another one appears, and every story is interconnected with the other exquisitely. While the setting, premise and most of the events may sound depressing and sad, the success of the writer is in threading the characters and their tales in light and love.

One of the best books I read this year and have lost count of the people I have recommended it to. Go get it!