The Scent of Flowers at Night

International bestseller Leila Slimani's elegant meditation on life and death, art and beauty, translated by Sam Taylor

'A revelation - I have never felt more seen by a book, nor have I been so gripped'

KATY HESSEL

'An engaging meditation'

DAILY TELEGRAPH

In 2019, Leila Slimani was commissioned by her editor to spend a sleepless night alone in a museum and to document the experience. Here, we find her grappling with the thoughts and ideas that emerge from her solitude as she walks the halls of the Punta della Dogana in Venice, interrogating her life as a woman, a writer and a daughter. In a space where old meets new, she beholds her past and present; surrounded by art, she explores what it means to behold and clasp beauty; enveloped by night, she confronts the meaning of life and death.

Slimani's The Scent of Flowers at Night is a revelation - I have never felt more seen by a book, nor have I been so gripped. In such elegant and readable prose, she captures the obsession and joys of writing, and the power of art and words -- Katy Hessel
An utterly compelling exploration of memory, art-making and solitude: what it takes, what it costs, to be a daughter, a woman, who writes. I couldn't put it down. Tanya Shadrick
An engaging meditation on literature, death, deracination and tourism -- Lucy Ellmann Daily Telegraph
Mesmerising. I inhaled this writer's poetic meditation on time and the creative process -- Sheena Patel
Heartwarming and sad...accessible and endearing...frank and honest...humorous and affirming Buzz Listings
Vivid and capable of transporting the reader The Observer

Leila Slimani is the first Moroccan woman to win France's most prestigious literary prize, the Prix Goncourt, which she won for Lullaby. A journalist and frequent commentator on women's and human rights, she is French president Emmanuel Macron's personal representative for the promotion of the French language and culture. Born in Rabat, Morocco, in 1981, she lives in Lisbon.

Author photograph: Francesca Mantovani 2022 Editions Gallimard.

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