Ask a Bookseller: 'Fresh Water for Flowers'

Maureen Palmer of Redbery Books in Cable, Wis., recommends the novel “Fresh Water for Flowers” by Valérie Perrin, translated from French by Hildegarde Serle. Palmer loved this literary novel, with its memorable characters and a bit of mystery.The story follows the very likeable Violette Toussaint, caretaker of a cemetery, whose days are punctuated by cemetery visitors. One day, police chief Julien Sole shows up with his mother’s ashes and her request to leave those ashes on the tomb of a man he has never heard of before.Fittingly for a story set near a cemetery, each chapter starts with an epitaph, and Palmer says her copy of the novel is bursting with Post-it notes, marking all the epitaphs she wanted to read again.