About Scent of Darkness
• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Pantheon (January 29, 2013)
In Margot Berwin’s hotly anticipated second novel she takes us somewhere darker, deep into the bayous of Louisiana, to a world of fortune-tellers, soothsayers, and potent elixirs: a magical, seductive story about the power of scent–and what happens when a perfume renders a young woman irresistible.
Evangeline grows up understanding the extraordinary effects of fragrance. Her grandmother, Louise, is a gifted aromata, a master in the art of scent-making and perfume. When Eva was a girl, Louise carefully explained the way lavender under her pillow would make her dream of the man she would marry; eucalyptus would make her taller; almondine, fatter; and jasmine, she promised, would wrap her entire life in a mystery. When Eva is eighteen, Louise passes away and leaves her the ultimate gift—a scent created just for her. The small ruby vial of perfume with a stopper thin as a human hair is accompanied by a note in Louise’s slanted script: “Do not remove the stopper, Evangeline, unless you want everything in your life to change.”
From the moment Eva places a drop on her neck—the essence of fire, leather, red velvet rose and jasmine—men dance closer to her; women busy their faces deep into her hair; even the cats outside her bedroom cry to be near her. After a lifetime spent blending into the background, Eva is suddenly the object of intense desire for everyone around her. Strangers follow her down the street, a young boy appears at her door asking for a favor, and two men, one kind and good, the other evil and seductive, fall deeply, madly in love with her.
A bewitching tale of love, blood, power, and magic, Scent of Darkness is a wildly inventive novel that will seduce the reader’s every sense.
About Margot Berwin
Margot Berwin is the author of the best-selling novel Hothouse Flower and the Nine Plants of Desire. Her work has been translated into nineteen languages. She earned her MFA from the New School in 2005 and lives in New York City.
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Margot’s Tour Stops
Monday, February 4th: Broken Teepee
Tuesday, February 5th: Tiffany’s Bookshelf
Wednesday, February 6th: Olduvai Reads
Monday, February 11th: girlichef
Tuesday, February 12th: Luxury Reading
Wednesday, February 13th: Let Them Read Books
Thursday, February 14th: Hopelessly Devoted Bibliophile
Tuesday, February 19th: Conceptual Reception– author Q&A
Monday, February 25th: Queen of All She Reads
Monday, February 25th: Great Imaginations
Tuesday, February 26th: A Dream Within a Dream
Wednesday, February 27th: Under My Apple Tree
Friday, March 1st: Romancing the Book – author interview
Friday, March 1st: Romancing the Book
Friday, March 1st: Urban Girl Reader
Monday, March 4th: Jenny Loves to Read
Wednesday, March 6th: Kahakai Kitchen