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Fresh Water for Flowers
- Narrated by: Sara Young
- Length: 14 hrs and 42 mins
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Fresh Water for Flowers
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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.
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What listeners say about Fresh Water for Flowers
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Cath
- 28-07-23
Terrible French accent spoiled things
Why not hire someone with at least a working knowledge of French to narrate this book?! Every time the narrator pronounced Alain as Elaine, or Françoise as François (a man’s name), I cringed. Just two of many examples.
This poor casting decision really detracted from a complex and lyrical, if perhaps slightly overlong, novel.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 14-04-24
Accent
American pronunciation of French words was irritating to my English ears. Otherwise a good story.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Roly
- 21-08-21
…books are bricks of experience- no regrets
A cemetery is an original setting to a story of interactions, love, multiple relationships and intriguing characters. Certainly the book is an opportunity to listen to a modern French novel in translation, describing an environment on an unfamiliar cultural and behavioural canvas, which I enjoyed.
One can view this all kindly and look at the emergence from tragedy and redemption for Violette; she certainly deserves it, or be more ruthless and describe a convoluted and contrived novel attempting to link up too many personalities and wonder that selfish and negative behavior is the origin of all misfortune.
Chapters are preceded by quotes from poetry, mostly of French origin, but I recognised some English; none however were referenced, and I would have preferred to have known.
The narrator is American, who’s pronunciation was sadly inconsistent with hard “t’s” for example, on basics like beret and Peugeot, and probably much more that I didn’t notice and although female voices were adequate, the men were overly alike and not fluent.
This was a random choice with no recommendation other than “new and available”. It wasn’t a best read but books are bricks of experience - no regrets.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Anon
- 28-10-23
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.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Marta Crowley
- 26-07-24
beautiful story
It's a beautiful story but I found it so hard to get into. I can't figure out why- maybe the story was a little disjointed? I think the narrator was probably mismatched to what this story needed.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- jane wharton
- 06-07-22
Very unusual compelling story
Liked the story but narrator poor pronunciation of French and even some English words which spoilt the listening experience for me.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- C. Whitson
- 15-04-24
Beautiful story, heartbreaking and heart lifting.
This is a beautiful story of love, loss, life and all the complications and intricacies within them. Loved the characters and the setting. The narration was pretty good but some of the mispronunciations were quite distracting.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- ih2k
- 20-07-23
struggled to finish
heard of this this from a book club and was initial very engaged but felt the middle of the book lost it's way and I gave up almost... decided to listen to them last few chapters which was sufficient to get some closure... tis done...
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Ms JB Gulliver
- 11-02-24
I loved the gentleness of the story despite its great sadness.
I would have preferred someone more at home with French pronunciation. Even better would have been a French so speaking narrator.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Mrs F
- 17-09-24
Beautiful descriptive language. Interesting story line.
Dreadful pronunciation of French words by narrator, which I found really irksome and interfered with the flow of the listening experience.
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