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Home > Translation > The World Bookshelf > Books > Parfums

Parfums

From the sizzling sharpness of freshly cut garlic to the cool tang of a father’s aftershave; the heady intoxication of a fumbled first kiss to the anodyne void of disinfectant and death, this is a decadently original olfactory memoir.

In sixty-three elusive episodes we roam freely across the countryside of Lorraine, North-East France, from kitchen to farm to a lover’s bed. Recognising the bittersweet nostalgia of a scent that slips away on the summer breeze, Claudel demonstrates again his impeccable grasp of the personal and the universal, interweaved with a rare self-deprecating charm.

This is an evocative patchwork at once earthy and ethereal, erotic and heart-breaking. Claudel permits us a glimpse of moments that have driven him to delight or despair, creating through the fading aromas of the past fragments of humour, insight and quite intangible beauty.

Author

Philippe Claudel

Philippe Claudel

Books

Parfums

Philippe Claudel is a novelist, film director and university lecturer. His film I’ve Loved You So Long won the 2009 BAFTA for Best Film Not in English. He is the author of Grey Souls, Brodeck’s Report, Monsieur Linh and His Child and The Investigation, and in 2012 was appointed to l’Académie Goncourt.

Translator

Euan Cameron

Euan Cameron

Books

Parfums

Euan Cameron has translated over two dozen books from the French, including works by Julien Green, Paul Morand, François Bizot, Pierre Péju, Jean-Paul Kauffmann, Philippe Claudel and Jean-Michel Guenassia, as well as major biographies of Marcel Proust and Irène Némirovsky. He was formerly a publisher at Bodley Head, Random House and Harvill Secker.

Published by

MacLehose Press, 2014
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From the sizzling sharpness of freshly cut garlic to the cool tang of a father’s aftershave; the heady intoxication of a fumbled first kiss to the anodyne void of disinfectant and death, this is a decadently original olfactory memoir.

In sixty-three elusive episodes we roam freely across the countryside of Lorraine, North-East France, from kitchen to farm to a lover’s bed. Recognising the bittersweet nostalgia of a scent that slips away on the summer breeze, Claudel demonstrates again his impeccable grasp of the personal and the universal, interweaved with a rare self-deprecating charm.

This is an evocative patchwork at once earthy and ethereal, erotic and heart-breaking. Claudel permits us a glimpse of moments that have driven him to delight or despair, creating through the fading aromas of the past fragments of humour, insight and quite intangible beauty.

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