![]() ![]() ![]() The move paid off for the German publishing house: The novel spent nine years on the best-seller list of the German weekly magazine Der Spiegel. Perfume was rejected numerous times before finally getting published in 1985 by Diogenes. Reading Perfume was a physical experience I could smell the scenes printed on the pages, and I became more aware of the odors and scents surrounding me in my everyday life, deepening its dimensions and making me more present in it.Īfter finishing the book, keen to read anything by Süskind, I went to the public library to see what other novels by him I could check out. The writing was magnetic I felt powerless to resist Süskind's ability to intertwine the gruesome with the sublime, just as the victims in the novel were powerless to resist the repulsive protagonist's olfactory manipulations. ![]() The evocative language, the vivid descriptions pulled me into this story of a murderous perfumer and his superordinary sense of smell. DW's Cristina Burack Image: Bilal El Soussi It was the first work of contemporary German literature that I tackled on my own outside of a classroom, underlining words in pencil in the street car to look up later in the dictionary. I read it in German around 10 years ago when I was still a relative newcomer to the language. Perfume: The Story of A Murderer (1985) by German author Patrick Süskind is the kind of book that makes you miss your tram stop. ![]()
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