A Single Rose
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4.0 • 3 Ratings
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- $14.99
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
From the bestselling author of The Elegance of the Hedgehog comes a story about a woman’s journey, in which she discovers the father she never knew and a love she never thought possible.
Rose has turned forty, but has barely begun to live. When her Japanese father dies and she finds herself an orphan, she leaves France for Kyoto to hear the reading of his will. Paul, her father’s assistant, takes Rose on a mysterious pilgrimage designed by her deceased father. Her bitterness is soothed by the temples, Zen gardens and teahouses, and by her encounters with her father’s friends. As she recognises what she has lost, and as secrets are divulged, Rose learns to accept a part of herself that she has never before acknowledged.
Through her father’s itinerary, he opens his heart posthumously to his daughter, and Rose finds love where she least expects it. This stunning fifth novel from international bestseller Muriel Barbery is a mesmerising story of second chances, of beauty born out of grief.
Muriel Barbery is the author of the New York Times bestseller, The Elegance of the Hedgehog, Gourmet Rhapsody, The Life of Elves and A Strange Country. She has lived in Kyoto, Amsterdam, and Paris, and now lives in the French countryside.
Alison Anderson’s many translations include novels by Nobel Prize winner J-M.G. Le Clézio, Anna Galvada, Amélie Nothomb, Hélène Grémillon, as well as Muriel Barbery’s earlier novels.
‘Muriel Barbery sows beauty on every page.’ Elle
‘An ode to Japan…a magnificent, resonant, finely crafted novel.’ Le Monde
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Barberry (The Elegance of the Hedgehog) returns with a lyrical and opaque story of a French woman grieving her Japanese father, a man she'd never met. Forty-year-old Parisian botanist Rose travels to Kyoto for the reading of the will of her father, the influential art dealer Haru Ueno. Before the reading, Haru's assistant, Paul, a Belgian widower, drags Rose along to visit a series of temples as part of an itinerary left by Haru. Uncertain how she should feel and initially disoriented by the gardens and flowers around her, Rose yearns to know more about her father. She discovers, despite remaining distant, that he kept up with her life by hiring photographers to follow her and send back photos. She drifts through the days with lugubrious philosophical thoughts ("The branches reconstituted a tableau of perfection, and the visual choreography of it touched her heart but also irritated her"), and just as Rose recognizes her attraction to Paul, he leaves suddenly for Tokyo on business, and the day of the will reading rapidly approaches. Barberry includes standalone aphoristic Japanese tales, such as that of a healer who "knew the virtues of plants," which add texture but feel tenuously connected to the central narrative. This plaintive novel impresses with its smoothness, but it will leave readers wondering how the pieces are meant to fit together.
