The Perfumist of Paris : A Novel by Alka Joshi [Paperback]

Paris, 1974. Radha is now thirty-two and living in Paris with her husband, Pierre, and their two daughters. She still grieves for the baby boy she gave up years ago, when she was only a child herself, but she loves being a mother to her daughters, and she's finally found her passion-the treasure trove of scents.

When her friend's grandfather offered her a job at his parfumerie, she quickly discovered she had a talent-she could find the perfect fragrance for any customer who walked through the door. Now, ten years later, she's working for a master perfumer, helping to design completely new fragrances for clients and building her career one scent at a time. She only wishes Pierre could understand her need to work. She feels his frustration, but she can't give up the thing that drives her.

Tasked with her first major project, Radha travels to India, where she enlists the help of her sister, Lakshmi, and the courtesans of Agra-women who use the power of fragrance to seduce, tease and entice. She's on the cusp of a breakthrough when she finds out the son she never told her husband about is heading to Paris to find her-upending her carefully managed world and threatening to destroy a vulnerable marriage.