A Single Rose

July 19, 2021
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.

August 1, 2021
When the father she never knew dies in Japan, Rose travels there to find out what he has left her in his estate. Rose, a botanist living in France, arrives to a different world, where she samples delicate fish dishes and admires beautiful landscapes of unfamiliar plants. Her father's staff--including Paul, her father's assistant--welcome her kindly, but Rose feels unsettled and confused. Rose's father has asked that she visit a series of temples in different parts of the country before she can hear the reading of his will. As Rose does so, growing closer to Paul along the way, she realizes that this is how she can come to know her father even after his death--but she can't ignore the reality of her past without him. Barbery (A Strange Country, 2020) brings her usual lush descriptions to this slim novel, weaving traditional Japanese stories through the narrative. This luminous meditation on grief is perfect for readers of Laura Imai Messina's The Phone Booth at the Edge of the World (2021).

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September 1, 2021

In the opening pages of this latest novel from French author Barbery (The Elegance of the Hedgehog), Rose wakes up in her father's house in Kyoto, Japan, where she has come to hear the reading of his will. Raised by her mother and grandmother in Europe, Rose never met her father, a wealthy, well-known art dealer. Yet though he is dead, Rose's father controls her entire experience in Kyoto. Guided by his assistant Paul, a widower from Belgium, Rose visits temples, gardens, tea rooms, and restaurants to better understand her father and his country. As a botanist, she especially embraces the region's flowers. Each chapter begins with a Japanese parable that is brought to life through Rose's explorations of the city and encounters with those closest to her father. While her relationship with Paul begins shakily (he refers to her several times as a "pain in the ass"), they eventually fall in love. VERDICT Barbery takes risks in creating a self-involved and somewhat irritating main character. Yet with elegant and careful prose, she offers descriptions of Kyoto and Japanese culture that transcend the genre of a travelogue. This novel will appeal to readers who long for happy endings and escape.--Jacqueline Snider, Toronto

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