The Perfume (Pocket Edition)

Engaging and mysterious, Perfume is Patrick Süskind's acclaimed bestseller, with more than 15 million copies sold worldwide.

France, 18th century. Newborn Jean-Baptiste Grenouille is abandoned by his mother among fish remains in a Parisian market. Deprived of the smell that every human being exudes and rejected by society as an abominable being, the boy Grenouille grows up surviving rejection, accidents, and illness.

During his youth, he discovers he is endowed with a sublime gift—an extraordinary olfactory sensitivity—and begins to search for the perfect essence, the perfume he lacks to achieve what he most desires: to become a complete and beloved man. But there is a grim price to pay for achieving perfection—this essence must be usurped from other bodies, and to do so, life must be extracted from them.

In this incredible work, Patrick Süskind juggles words that unsettles the reader. Using dense and impetuous language, Perfume combines captivating tones, constructing a metaphor for death that celebrates life in this contemporary classic.

“Ingenious and fascinating.” — The Daily Telegraph

“Sumptuously literary.” — Corriere della Sera

 “A fantastic story of murder and eroticism.” — Literary Review

“Süskind’s references to smell are so strong that the pages seem to be impregnated.” — The Times