Parfums

Philippe Claudel's highly original new book is an autobiographical evocation - one might even call it an olfactory memoir - of his beloved pays natal in Lorraine, where he has lived all his life. Sixty-three brief essays conjure up the distillation of the fragrances or scents associated with his childhood and adolescence, and which evoke a forgotten world: acacia, mist, coal, the swimming pool, his mother's sun cream lotion, the cemetery, churches, first love, fried bacon, Gauloises and Gitanes, a sleeping child, communal showers, hay, cinnamon, his uncle's pullover, amidst countless other scattered perfumes that have shaped his life. They are smells that may have enchanted him, uplifted him or troubled him, leaving their mark on the sensibilities of this celebrated film maker and novelist.