Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
In eighteenth-century Paris, an orphaned boy is born with the most acute sense of smell in the world. As he grows, he becomes obsessed with capturing the most sublime scents on Earth — including those of beautiful young girls, who he stalks and kills to obtain their perfect scents.
Written in decadent, chilling prose, Perfume will shock its readers through even the last page.
Quote:
"He devoured everything, everything, sucking it up into him. But there were no aesthetic principles governing the olfactory kitchen of his imagination, where he was forever synthesizing and concocting new aromatic combinations. He fashioned grotesqueries, only to destroy them again immediately, like a child playing with blocks--inventive and destructive."
Author:
Patrick Süskind is a playwright and author of one novel, Perfume. He lives in Germany and France.
Published: 1986
Length: 263 pages
Set in: Paris, France
Translated by: John E. Woods