The Rain Watcher

The Rain Watcher is not my favorite of Tatiana De Rosnay's novels.  It is an interesting story told about a family who has never been able to share personal feelings, now faced with illness and the rising water of the 2016 Paris flood, finds ways to open up and share long hidden fears, hurts and resentments.

Set against the backdrop of the Paris flood with newscasts and very descriptive narration of the rising water comparing this flood to the Paris flood of 1910, we meet the Malegarde family.  Linden is the famous photographer and son to Lauren and Paul.  Lauren , married at an early age to Paul, who has become famous for his love of trees.  Known as the "Treeman", he travels the world trying to save tress that come in the path of progress.  Paul had told his son,  "What do the trees tell me?  Everything.  ...
They tell me what lies under their roots, in the thickness of their leaves.  That's why we need trees to understand the world.  Trees are living encyclopedias.  They give us the keys."

Lauren was a young girl traveling with her sister Candice, from Boston, when she met Paul.  She married him and moved to the quiet and distant homestead of Venozan between the villages of Nyons and Sevral, a six hour drive from Paris.  Each family member has secrets they have been harboring for years.  As the flood waters rise and Paris is evacuated, Linden, his sister, Tilia and the parents slowly unravel and face their long buried fears to bring the family together and face the turmoil that is happening both within the family and around them with the weather.

Though the main plot should be the focus of the family and their relationship and interactions, the book is mainly focused on the flooding of Paris.  It is interesting historically, but I thought it should take on more of a background role in the novel.