Four books that changed Katrina Lawrence

Katrina Lawrence, one of Australia's most awarded beauty writers, is the author of Paris Dreaming. One of four books that changed her, as shared at the Sydney Morning Herald:

PERFUME
Patrick Süskind

I remember almost hyperventilating during my first read; I was in such awe of the author's (and translator's) talent. It was dizzying, too; some scenes were so sensorially vivid that pages seemed scratch-and-sniff. I'd just started life as a beauty editor, developing a passion for perfume writing, which can easily sound like a press release. Perfume proved there was a way to write evocatively about smell, a sense that doesn't have a unique vocabulary of its own.

Learn about another book on the list.

Perfume is among Karen Runge's five (damn-near) perfect (dark) novels and Lara Feigel's top ten smelly books.

--Marshal Zeringue