The Scent of Flowers at Night: a stunning new work of non-fiction from the bestselling author of Lullaby

Description

'Night is the land of reinvention, whispered prayers, erotic passions. Night is the place where utopias have the scent of the possible, where we no longer feel constrained by petty reality. Night is the country of dreams where we discover that, in the secrecy of our heart, we are host to a multitude of voices and an infinity of worlds...' Over one night, alone in the Punta della Dogana Museum in Venice, Leila Slimani grapples with the self as it is revealed in solitude. In a place of old and new, she confronts her past and her present, through her life as a Moroccan woman, as a writer, and as a daughter. Surrounded by art, she explores what it means to behold and clasp beauty; enveloped by night, she confronts the meaning of life and death. Translated from the French by Sam Taylor

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.

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 *