‘That was when I realised you were unique. That there are women who are unlike any other. You weren’t a copy of someone else; you were your own person.’*

When I read (my) first book by Valérie Perrin, the reader in me was enchanted and the writer was in awe. Perrin’s work is a hymn to life itself and to love. In *Changer l’eau des fleurs* (the original French title), translated as *A breve vida das flores* in Portuguese and the poetic *Fresh Water for Flowers* in English, Perrin brings to life, through the sweet Violette, what can happen when we manage to transform deep suffering into beauty. Just as in Gabriel García Márquez’s “One Hundred Years of Solitude”, Perrin has convinced me once again that all suffering can come to an end and that one day, we too will have the opportunity to be happy, if only we know how to seek it out and seize it. In truth, the possibilities lie within us. It is we who attach the importance we do to the events of our lives, and transforming our lives is possible.

For me, a good author is someone who can take me on a journey. It doesn’t have to be literary fiction, or an author who has won the Nobel Prize. Perrin takes me on a continuous journey through love in its many forms: love between friends, between parents and children, between reciprocated loves, impossible loves, or even love when we no longer expect it. To love is to live; it is to be alive in the deepest sense of this miracle that is human life.

There are stories in the book, albeit fleeting, that leave a lasting impression, such as that of Olivia and François, two half-siblings who met for the first time at school—she a pupil, he a teacher, twenty years apart in age. They discover they are half-siblings, but cannot help their feelings; they love one another and find a way to live out their love, in their own way.

Valérie Perrin’s stories are original, raw, tender, and each time I read them, I find myself captivated all over again.
A huge thank you to Valérie Perrin and all the other authors who write, teach us and bring so much to life.

*Please note that this citation was translated from French into Portuguese and English with DeepL.com (free version)