Description
Book SynopsisIt's October 1918 and the war is drawing to a close. Toussaint Caillet returns home to his wife, Jeanne, and the young daughter he hasn't seen growing up. He is not coming back from the front line but from the department for facial injuries at Val-de-Grace military hospital, where he has spent the last two years. For Jeanne, who has struggled to endure his absence and the hardships of war, her husband's return marks the beginning of a new battle. With the promise of peace now in sight, the family must try to stitch together a new life from the tatters of what they had before.
Trade Review“An astonishing, compelling, slow-burn of a novel – full of understated power and devastating insight.”- William Boyd, author of Any Human Heart ; “In 1918, Paris is awash with rumours: about the war, about the Spanish flu, and about the lack of food. In shining prose, Villeneuve describes terrible losses, national, familial, and personal, and how one small family must learn to live together again. Affecting, moving, and compelling.” – Claire Fuller, author of Unsettled Ground ; “Unflinchingly examining the visible and invisible wounds inflicted by war, this tenderly told story simultaneously reveals how courageous lovers find ways to repair each other's damage.” – Michèle Roberts, author of Ignorance and The Walworth Beauty ; “Meticulously researched, Villeneuve describes the brutal emotional consequences of war. In her gorgeous writing she conveys the couple’s silences and communicates the inexpressible. Readers will take comfort in this family’s journey from estrangement to connection.” – Janet Skeslien Charles, New York Times Bestselling author of The Paris Library ; “Exquisite. Winter Flowers felt like an intake of breath, held, then slowly released. Angelique Villeneuve has observed the fragility of the human soul and rendered it with truth and compassion. Like her protagonist, Jeanne, the wife who has spent the long war recreating the beauty of flowers in paper and cloth, Villeneuve is a master of her craft.” - Pip Williams, author of The Dictionary of Lost Words
