After loving the works of Maylis de Kerangal in 2021, I've been interested in exploring more French literature, and I've had Perrin in my sights because she's published by Europa, a publisher I love for translated works. (Hildegarde Serle translates this one.) When Fabled book buyer gave me a nudge to read this, I was only too eager to jump in! I was hooked by her English language debut from the lyrical and utterly surprising opening passage, in which narrator Violette grounds us in her work as a cemetery caretaker. She sees her setting not as a sinister place but as a garden of souls where she gently tends the dead and those who come to pay them tribute. The achingly sad and touching story unspools over more than twenty years, yet always felt immediate, even urgent, mixing love and betrayal, drama and resilience, friendship and loss, drama and resilience, even poetry to great effect. I listened on audio, which was a little tricky in places because the narrative jumps through time, but I still loved experiencing the story in that format. I'm eager to read more of Perrin's works and already downloaded her new release Three to begin next.

From the publisher: "1986: Adrien, Etienne and Nina are 10 years old when they meet at school and quickly become inseparable. They promise each other they will one day leave their provincial backwater, move to Paris, and never part. 2017: A car is pulled up from the bottom of the lake, a body inside. Virginie, a local journalist with an enigmatic past reports on the case while also reflecting on the relationship between the three friends, who were unusually close when younger but now no longer speak. As Virginie moves closer to the surprising truth, relationships fray and others are formed."