Cambiare l'acqua ai fiori

Violette Toussaint looks after a cemetery in a Burgundy town, where she lives in a cottage near the gate and knows everyone who comes to mourn. Her life seems simple until Julien Seul, a police commissioner, arrives to bury his mother's ashes in the grave of a man she never mentioned. As Julien and Violette trace the relationship between his mother and a stranger, the novel digs into Violette's own history: a childhood in an orphanage, a marriage to a cruel man, a lost child. Valerie Perrin builds the plot out of letters, epitaphs, and the small observations of someone who has spent years among the dead.

It suits readers who like layered family secrets and a gentle, bittersweet tone.

Inward-looking; an easy read.

Best for readers like The Empathetic Explorer. Which reader are you?