About the Author
Patrick Süskind
b. 1949
Patrick Süskind is a German writer and screenwriter, best known for his internationally acclaimed novel Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, first published in 1985. Süskind was born in Ambach am Starn...
Patrick Süskind is a German writer and screenwriter, best known for his internationally acclaimed novel Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, first published in 1985. Süskind was born in Ambach am Starnberger See, near Munich in Germany. His father was writer and journalist Wilhelm Emanuel Süskind, who worked for the Süddeutsche Zeitung and is famous as the co-author of the well-known Aus dem Wörterbuch des Unmenschen (From the Dictionary of an Inhuman), a critical collection of essays on the language of the Nazi era. Patrick Süskind went to school in Holzhausen, a little Bavarian village. His mother worked as a sports trainer; his older brother Martin E. Süskind is also a journalist. Süskind studied Medieval and Modern History at the University of Munich and in Aix-en-Provence from 1968-1974, but never graduated. Financially supported by his parents, he moved to Paris where he wrote "mainly short, unpublished fiction and longer screenplays which were not made into films." In 1981, he had his breakthrough with the play Der Kontrabaß (The Double Bass), which was originally conceived as a radio play. In the 1984-85 theatrical season, the play was performed more than 500 times. Süskind was also successful as a screenwriter for the TV productions Monaco Franze (1983) and Kir Royal (1987), among others. For his screenplay of Rossini, directed by Helmut Dietl, he won the Screenplay Prize of the German Department for Culture in 1996. He rejected other awards, like the FAZ-Literaturpreis, the Tukan-Preis (de), and the Gutenbergpreis. His best-known work is the internationally acclaimed bestseller Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (1985). This was made into a film in 2006 by Tom Tykwer. Perfume was on the bestselling list of the German weekly news magazine Der Spiegel for nine years. Süskind lives as a recluse in Munich, in Seeheim (Lake Starnberg), and in France. The public knows little about Süskind. He has withdrawn from the literary scene in Germany and never grants interviews or allows photos. Source: Wikipedia
Description
INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER • Set in eighteenth-century France, the classic novel that provokes a terrifying examination of what happens when one man’s indulgence in his greatest passion—his sense of smell—leads to murder.
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 he becomes obsessed with capturing the smells of objects such as brass doorknobs and fresh-cut wood. Then one day he catches a hint of a scent that will drive him on an ever-more-terrifying quest to create the “ultimate perfume”—the scent of a beautiful young virgin. Told with dazzling narrative brilliance, Perfume is a hauntingly powerful tale of murder and sensual depravity.
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