Perfume by Patrick Suskind
In eighteenth-century France there lived a man who was one of the most gifted and abominable personages in an era that knew no lack of gifted and abominable personages.
That is how Suskinds amazing book begins. He then drags the reader through an olfactory jeorney through the stinking streets of Paris till we meet Grenouille, a man who, remarkably in this reeking universe has no personal odour.
The descriptions are vivid and the story compelling as we follow Grenouille on a deeply flawed journey through his attempts to discover, capture and recreate the perfect scent.