The Charmed Life of Flowers: Field Notes from Provence

THE CHARMED LIFE OF FLOWERS, winner of the 2013 Paris Book Festival's International General Fiction Category, is Meredith Steinbach's magical tale of Provencal camaraderie and delight. In this post-modern novel set off the beaten path in the vineyards and olive groves of Southern France, Meredith Steinbach reconsiders and reconstructs the components of an old-fashioned fairy tale. When the little albino schoolteacher, Pearl Queneau, seeks refuge in the village of St. X, even the plants and animals transcend their days as textbook entries and come to life for her. Here she falls in love with the proverbial Woodcutter and raises her son in an atmosphere of increasing tolerance and generosity, but for the ill will of a few miscreants who would try to cause them irreparable harm. Brilliant black-and-white photographs of flowers by Mary Tiegreen herald the text along with vintage engravings of flora and fauna from Provence. About the Photographer: Mary Tiegreen is an artist, writer, photographer, and book designer. She was raised in Chicago and studied print-making and graphic design at the University of Iowa. Her work with explorer and archaeologist Milbry Polk on women explorers, WOMEN OF DISCOVERY: A CELEBRATION OF INTREPID WOMEN WHO EXPLORED THE WORLD, with a forward by Christiane Amanpour, depicts the astonishing lives of eighty women explorers from the days of the Vikings to the present. Tiegreen’s WONDERLAND photographs of flowers have been exhibited at the New York Art Club and are in private collections in London, New York, Paris, and Geneva. She currently makes her home in New York with her husband and Golden Retriever pup, with frequent trips to France and the Southwest.