Published in France in 2006 and in the UK in 2008, the novel was translated in 44 countries, selling more than 10 million copies worldwide, and was described by Le Figaro as. This plaintive novel impresses with its smoothness, but it will leave readers wondering how the pieces are meant to fit together. Muriel Barbery is a former lecturer in philosophy and the author of four novels, including the IMPAC-shortlisted multimillion-copy bestseller The Elegance of the Hedgehog. Barbery 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.

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. She discovers, despite remaining distant, that he kept up with her life by hiring photographers to follow her and send back photos. A Single Rose by Muriel Barbery, Alison Anderson (Translation) is a 2021 Europa Editions publication. Uncertain how she should feel and initially disoriented by the gardens and flowers around her, Rose yearns to know more about her father.

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. Forty-year-old Parisian botanist Rose travels to Kyoto for the reading of the will of her father, the influential art dealer Haru Ueno. During their walks, Rose encounters acquaintances of her fatherincluding a potter and poet, an old lady friend, his housekeeper and chauffeurwhose interactions help her to slowly begin to accept a part of herself that she has never before acknowledged. Barbery ( 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.