Having read the stellar Fresh Water for Flowers and Three by the French author, Valerie Perrin, I was over the moon that her stunning debut has finally been translated into English. It is not a long novel, but I guarantee you will not forget it, it is a beautiful blend of the joyous, the melancholic, the intimate and the magical with its themes of family, the celebration of life, love, loss, grief, memories, relationships, secrets and getting older. Having read this, I could not resist revisiting it by listening to the audio when it became available, it is wonderfully and ably narrated by Elisabeth LageléeIt, it is approximately 9 hours and 20 minutes long, i was again pulled into the captivating storytelling. It is bursting with charm, wit and humour, set in the small French town of Milly, where 21 year old Justine Neige lives. Justine has been raised by her suicidal Gran and grumpy Gramps, along with her cousin that she regards as her brother, Jules, and unlike most young people, she has no dreams of leaving Milly. Justine loves music and the elderly, enthralled by the stories they have to tell, more than willing to work unpaid hours in her job as nursing assistant at The Hydrangeas, caring for its elderly residents.

Justine has a particularly special relationship with 96 year old Helene Hel, whose life she is writing up in a journal for her grandson, Roman. In a narrative that goes back and forth in time, Helene was born twice, in 1917 and on the day she met Lucien Perrin in 1933, who opens a wondrous and thrilling world that had been denied to her, including being able to read novels, when he teaches her Braille. We follow her life, with her and Lucien living and working at old Louis's cafe where Charles Baudelaire is a regular customer, the harrowing experience of WW2, the hardships, her fear of the Boche, and the testing challenges she must face at the end of the war. As Helene's personal history emerges, Justine has to come to terms with the secrets within her own family and wonders who is the mysterious caller who rings elderly residents relatives who refuse to visit them on Sundays, falsely informing them they have died.

Perrin has a remarkable gift in being able to burrow subtly beneath the surface of life, of her all too human and flawed characters, their key relationships, memories and the twists and turns that life throws at them. Helene and Justine's connection shines, they are different stages of their lives, Helene's is in the process of coming to a close, at which point her seagull will depart, whilst Justine is so young, so distrusting of love, oddly repeatedly linking up with what's his name. Fans of Perrin are likely to adore this, and I have high hopes that those who encounter her here for the first time will love this novel too. Hugely recommend both the book and the audio.. Many thanks to the publisher for an ARC and Dreamscape Audio for the ALC..

I'm sorry to say I struggled with this book and didn't find it enjoyable.

There were so many different characters and timelines, I was constantly confused and, in addition, I wasn't sure whether Helene's memories were all real or whether she was dreaming as some of the events didn't feel real. I feel that less chaos and more development of fewer events would have enabled me to better engage with Helene and Justine, as the main characters, but I found that amongst the confusion, I didn't really care for them.

I loved the idea of the phone calls made to the families of those who were "forgotten on Sunday" and more could have made of that as it was fascinating and tragic.

Elisabeth Lagalée did an excellent job as the narrator.

2 ⭐️ Thanks to Netgalley, the author and the publisher for an ARC in return for an honest review.

Forgotten on Sunday was a lovely albeit heartbreaking novel. I was gifted the audio version from Net Galley and the Dreamscape Team. Once I started, I was so hooked that I quickly finished it in one day. In the past I've found when I'm reading books translated into English, I often notice tiny little discrepancies or I have trouble connecting. That was certainly not the case with this book. Both the characters and the plot had me wanting to keep going. I have not read any of Perrin's previous works, but look forward to doing so now that I've finished Forgotten on Sunday.

Perrin has the loveliest writing, she to me is the French Ann Patchett writing these kind of effortless human stories.

Forgotten on Sunday is a beautiful reminder of a life well lived, about Iove, and about death, I love this idea of a young woman working amongst the elderly, swapping wisdom and finding solace.

Beautiful.

Author Valerie Perrin is French but had this book and a previous book, Fresh Water for Flowers, translated into English.

Justine works as a caregiver in a nursing home, truly caring for her patients physically as well as listening to their stories, many survivors of the War. Justine will work overtime shifts so she can hear their stories, as their families who could come visit on Sundays rarely seem to make it. It was so touching to see the care she showed her patients and took particular interest in Helene's story (I loved her ending) who lived to almost 100. Those she thought were just comatose, she still took time to talk to them. The writing was so beautiful and Perrin can craft such a moving story.

The story is told from several POV's and time periods so it is best read or pair the book and audio. I found it a little hard to keep up with the story line on audio only. I also didn't care for Justine's many unnamed loves - truly "What's His Name"?

My thanks to Net Galley and Dreamscape Media for an advanced copy of this audiobook.

This book was all over the place bad it was a good plot line the writing in my opinion wasn’t there. I did wish they translated better, I think this is the main issue