Le Parfum

Born in the stench of an eighteenth-century Paris fish market, Jean-Baptiste Grenouille has no body odor of his own and a nose that can pick out every smell in a city. He apprentices to a failing perfumer, Baldini, and learns to distill scents, then wanders through France and lives for years in a cave before arriving in Grasse, the capital of perfume. There he develops a plan to make the finest fragrance by killing young women. Patrick Süskind tells it in a cool, elegant narrative voice.

Recommended for readers who like a thriller that is also a character study, with beautiful prose about something rarely described in books: smell.

Deep and thought-provoking; a moderate read.

Best for readers like The Deep Diver. Which reader are you?