Book Club Meeting: Perfume (public event)

Join the Social Wave Book Club as we discuss Perfume by Patrick Suskind (translated from the German by John E. Woods).

In the slums of eighteenth-century France, the infant Jean-Baptiste Grenouille is born with one sublime gift -- an absolute sense of smell. As a boy, he lives to decipher the odors of Paris, and apprentices himself to a prominent perfumer who teaches him the ancient art of mixing precious oils and herbs. But Grenouille's genius is such that he is not satisfied to stop there, and one day he catches a hint of a scent that will drive him on an ever-more-terrifying quest to create the "ultimate perfume." Told with dazzling narrative brilliance, Perfume is a hauntingly powerful tale of murder and sensual depravity.

A reviewer from the San Francisco Chronicle has called it: "A supremely accomplished work of art, marvelously crafted and enjoyable and rich in historical detail."