Forgotten on Sunday

Perrin (Water for Flowers) offers a lively if overwrought dual narrative involving a nursing assistant and a resident at a nursing home in rural France. Justine Neige, 21, "love two things in life: music and the elderly." Deriving great satisfaction from her work at the nursing home, she takes unpaid overtime to provide the residents with additional care. Justine is especially drawn to Helene Hel, 96, who gradually reveals the tragic story of her lover's disappearance during WWII, which Justine diligently records in a blue notebook. Justine has her own sorrowful history: her parents, aunt, and uncle died in a mysterious car accident when she was five. As Perrin fills in the details of the women's stories, other questions arise in the present-day timeline: who is the man Justine regularly sleeps with, whose name she doesn't bother to learn? And who is placing calls to the relatives of unvisited nursing home residents--those "forgotten on Sunday"--falsely informing them that the residents have died? What begins as a lighthearted feel-good story becomes unwieldy and melodramatic as Justine pieces together the answers to her questions about Helene's life, the reasons behind her family's fatal accident, and the phone caller's motives. This one doesn't quite gel. (June)

Someone is making nasty crank calls to the families of residents of the Hydrangeas care home. The calls inform the families that their loved one has died and asks them to come the next day to collect the body. However, the alleged dead are all in fact still alive, and the calls are only made to the families who have never visited the Hydrangeas. This is not the only mystery in the little French village. While aiding the police with their investigation into the calls, Justine Neige, a 21-year-old nursing assistant at the home, discovers startling evidence about the car crash that killed her parents and her aunt and uncle some years ago, leaving her and her cousin in the care of their grandparents. All the while, another story unfolds for Justine--that of her favorite resident, the almost-centenarian Hélène, who recounts the many adventures of her long life, including one great love, for Justine to record and share with Hélène's survivors. VERDICT The many admirers of Perrin's previous novel, Fresh Water for Flowers, will be equally charmed by this beguiling tale. All other readers might be doubly rewarded.--Barbara Love

Justine Neige is a nursing assistant at a retirement home in a small French village. Working with the elderly is a calling for Justine, who was raised by her grandparents, and she loves capturing her patients' stories. Hélène is a former seamstress and café owner with a dramatic backstory full of secrets, passion, and lost love, and a handsome grandson who visits regularly. As Justine documents Hélène's story, she begins to view her own family's story in a new light. When Justine was a child, her parents died in a car accident—the car slid on black ice and collided with a tree—but Justine discovers new information that leads her to believe that the collision may not have been an accident. Like her later works (for example, Three, 2022), Perrin's debut novel, translated into English for the first time, is a deeply emotional, intergenerational saga about family secrets and the enduring power of love. Numerous flashbacks bring each of the plotlines into clear focus, deepening the reader's connection to the characters. An engrossing work about love and loss; ideal for fans of Jojo Moyes and Kate Morton. Copyright 2024 Booklist Reviews.

Perrin's previous book, Fresh Water for Flowers, sold over a million copies worldwide. Here she writes about an unlikely friendship that develops between 21-year-old Justine and the almost-100-year-old Hélène, a resident at the retirement home where Justine works, as they share their stories and confront their pasts. Prepub Alert. Copyright 2023 Library Journal

Someone is making nasty crank calls to the families of residents of the Hydrangeas care home. The calls inform the families that their loved one has died and asks them to come the next day to collect the body. However, the alleged dead are all in fact still alive, and the calls are only made to the families who have never visited the Hydrangeas. This is not the only mystery in the little French village. While aiding the police with their investigation into the calls, Justine Neige, a 21-year-old nursing assistant at the home, discovers startling evidence about the car crash that killed her parents and her aunt and uncle some years ago, leaving her and her cousin in the care of their grandparents. All the while, another story unfolds for Justine—that of her favorite resident, the almost-centenarian Hélène, who recounts the many adventures of her long life, including one great love, for Justine to record and share with Hélène's survivors. VERDICT The many admirers of Perrin's previous novel, Fresh Water for Flowers, will be equally charmed by this beguiling tale. All other readers might be doubly rewarded.—Barbara Love

Perrin (Water for Flowers) offers a lively if overwrought dual narrative involving a nursing assistant and a resident at a nursing home in rural France. Justine Neige, 21, "love two things in life: music and the elderly." Deriving great satisfaction from her work at the nursing home, she takes unpaid overtime to provide the residents with additional care. Justine is especially drawn to Helene Hel, 96, who gradually reveals the tragic story of her lover's disappearance during WWII, which Justine diligently records in a blue notebook. Justine has her own sorrowful history: her parents, aunt, and uncle died in a mysterious car accident when she was five. As Perrin fills in the details of the women's stories, other questions arise in the present-day timeline: who is the man Justine regularly sleeps with, whose name she doesn't bother to learn? And who is placing calls to the relatives of unvisited nursing home residents—those "forgotten on Sunday"—falsely informing them that the residents have died? What begins as a lighthearted feel-good story becomes unwieldy and melodramatic as Justine pieces together the answers to her questions about Helene's life, the reasons behind her family's fatal accident, and the phone caller's motives. This one doesn't quite gel. (June)