The Scent of a Man
To write is to remember. To remember is also to love.
In an apartment without modern conveniences in Gothenburg, mid-1960s,
a young woman is studying literature and anthropology, devouring and relishing the significance of the written word. She is plucky, frail and alone. She looks for confirmation in the men who come and go, and they are like charms, totems upon which she pins her story. In the center, ever looming: her father. She is trying, childishly, to rescue her parents by compelling them to finalize their divorce. But the daughter, who always sided with her adored dad, finds that there is no place left for her in his new life. That he, the witty and charming professor, doesn’t see her her intelligence, her accomplishments as she needs him to. As she needs all the men to do; like an equal. And it is so easy to get lost, to doubt oneself, in all that remains unspoken.
The Scent of a Man is a poignant, beautiful and sharp novel about a young woman who wants to be in control of her life and who longs to become a writer. A craft she will come to master. Agneta Pleijel investigates her own past, her triumphs and defeats, without any reservation, and the memories are brilliantly captured and formed into her.
Agneta Pleijel is one of Sweden’s most cherished authors. Since her debut in 1970, she has been active both as a novelist, poet and playwright. Pleijel’s books have been translated into a number of languages and she has been awarded several prestigious literary prizes. Her latest books are the bestselling and critically acclaimed A Fortune Foretold and The…
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Sold to: PolandTo write is to remember. To remember is also to love.
In an apartment without modern conveniences in Gothenburg, mid-1960s,
a young woman is studying literature and anthropology, devouring and relishing the significance of the written word. She is plucky, frail and alone. She looks for confirmation in the men who come and go, and they are like charms, totems upon which she pins her story. In the center, ever looming: her father. She is trying, childishly, to rescue her parents by compelling them to finalize their divorce. But the daughter, who always sided with her adored dad, finds that there is no place left for her in his new life. That he, the witty and charming professor, doesn’t see her her intelligence, her accomplishments as she needs him to. As she needs all the men to do; like an equal. And it is so easy to get lost, to doubt oneself, in all that remains unspoken.
The Scent of a Man is a poignant, beautiful and sharp novel about a young woman who wants to be in control of her life and who longs to become a writer. A craft she will come to master. Agneta Pleijel investigates her own past, her triumphs and defeats, without any reservation, and the memories are brilliantly captured and formed into her.
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I don't think there’s anybody I wouldn't want to give this book to.
I would like to give this tender memoir to myself as a 20-year-old. I would like to give it to all the young women who are serious readers, and who still allow themselves to be diminished by young men who are serious readers. Then again, on further consideration, I don’t think there’s anybody I wouldn’t want to give this book to.
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