The Language of Flowers
Vanessa Diffenbaugh. Ballantine, $25 (326p) ISBN 978-0-345-52554-3
Diffenbaugh's affecting debut chronicles the first harrowing steps into adulthood taken by a deeply wounded soul who finds her only solace in an all-but-forgotten language. On her 18th birthday, Victoria Jones ages out of the foster care system, a random series of living arrangements around the San Francisco Bay Area the only home she's ever known. Unable to express herself with words, she relies on the Victorian language of flowers to communicate: dahlias for "dignity"; rhododendron for "beware." Released from care with almost nothing, Victoria becomes homeless, stealing food and sleeping in McKinley Square, in San Francisco, where she maintains a small garden. Her secret knowledge soon lands her a job selling flowers, where she meets Grant, a mystery man who not only speaks her language, but also holds a crucial key to her past. Though Victoria is wary of almost everyone, she opens to Grant, and he reconnects her with the only person who has ever mattered in her life. Diffenbaugh's narrator is a hardened survivor and wears her damage on her sleeve. Struggling against all and ultimately reborn, Victoria Jones is hard to love, but very easy to root for. (Sept.)
Details
Reviewed on: 05/30/2011
Release date: 08/01/2011
Genre: Fiction
Paperback - 400 pages - 9781447208822
Paperback - 334 pages - 9780345537980
Paperback - 367 pages - 9780553841091
Hardcover - 592 pages - 9781445870281
Compact Disc - 9 pages - 9780307878939
Downloadable Audio - 1 pages - 9780307878960
Hardcover - 320 pages - 9780230752580
Open Ebook - 225 pages - 9780345525567
Paperback - 400 pages - 9780230755062
Hardcover - 529 pages - 9781410441713
Hardcover - 322 pages - 9780345525543
Paperback - 322 pages - 9781742611242
Paperback - 368 pages - 9780345525550
Paperback - 527 pages - 9781594135774
Paperback - 405 pages - 9780330532013
Audio book sample courtesy of Penguin Random House Audio