Perfume

Born on a Paris fish market in 1738 and abandoned at birth, Jean-Baptiste Grenouille has no scent of his own, yet possesses the most extraordinary sense of smell the world has ever known. Growing up unloved and barely noticed in the stench of eighteenth-century France, he becomes apprenticed to a master perfumer and discovers his single consuming purpose: to capture and preserve the most exquisite scent imaginable.

That scent belongs to young women, and Grenouille's pursuit of the perfect perfume turns him from a strange, solitary genius into a cold and methodical murderer. From the tanneries of Paris to the flower fields of Grasse, he chases an obsession entirely untroubled by conscience.

Patrick Süskind's international bestseller is a dark and sensuous historical novel, part fable and part horror story, about genius, obsession, and a man without a soul. Hypnotic and unsettling, it remains one of the most original novels of the twentieth century.