1987: Perfume

Grenouille, is a simple man who is born with an acute sense of smell. This knowledge is much more advanced than all his other senses combined. Grenouille's life is a constant struggle and he grows up without any sense of sympathy or empathy. In his youth, he apprentices to a perfume maker, and this becomes the perfect job for his unique skills. In the beginning, he collects the smells of flowers and herbs, and as he develops he begins to explore even inanimate objects like door handles. Eventually he turns his attentions to young, beautiful women. When he learns that the scent of virginal women unleash feelings of unfettered love - he becomes obsessed with bottling this scent and wearing it himself. His great dream is to fool the world into believing him "real". Grenouille does this by designing surrogate scents thus becoming the adored and esteemed person he so desperately wants to be.Why it's on the listPerfume is an amazing book. It reaches out and clings to you. At the same time both disturbing and revolting. While surrounding you with a barrage of images and smells from eighteenth century Paris, it forces you to think about morality and even identity. Stunningly written with animated descriptions, this is most definitely a book well worth reading. Most interestingly, this book is different to your ordinary murder novels: From the very beginning, we are aware who the killer is. In truth, the book does not really focus on the killings, but rather it focusses on the perversion of scent in Grenouille's life. Suskind does an extraordinary job of finding the perfect jargon to express these weird and unusual scents. Whether it is the careful depiction of a baby's scent to the odor of human "aura"-his words allow the reader to capture the essence of almost indescribable scents. This book is written with incredible narrative genius and is a compelling story of sensual depravity and murder.Read if you likeMurder Mystery, Horror and Dark Fantasy