AND born a new genre: the olfactory thriller. The debut of the French perfume expert Paul Richardot, Fragrantis a yellow whose final solution passes through a smell and in which The hero-investigator on duty is officially a aromatherapist.
In reality, young Hélias is able to recreate any aroma Simply sniffing it and is a “nose” apprentice. Works for Fragrancia, a secret company that offers wealthy customers the possibility of immerse yourself in the past ultra-realisticly through perfumes, smells and the help of a prohibited psychotropic substancethe SVM, which is now also passed off by illegal illegal illegal workshops. When Hélias meets Nora, the right arm of the company’s founder, is involved in a police investigationto hunt for a rapist. In the end, he finds himself in front of a ethical dilemma To protect the victim and must take a very little orthodox decision.
The surprise in this original thriller is that some of the more imaginative scenarios – machinery that extract aromas, Reproduction of the smell of a person and olfactory interrogations – they are instead real and object of scientific studies. «Only the Svm substance does not exist. Fortunately, “jokes the author.
Paul Richardot, born in 1992, graduated all École Superiéure du Parfum in Paris and works at an ancient French perfume company. Experience that merges with the misunderstood by his novel (Ph. Marie Rouge).
How do you become a “nose”?
I attended the École Supérieure du Parfum in Paris and I have a master’s degree in chemistry applied to perfumery. At school you learn to manipulate fragrances and raw materials and to formulate perfumes, but only very few become noses, that is, teachers perfumers. For example, I am not very good in that role. Together with two friends we reopened a historical company, the Violet Maison, and we use an excellent nose that has created some of the most famous perfumes on the market.
What exactly does a perfume teacher do?
It is pure magic. An example: in Grasse, in Provence, there are many lavender fields. A nose is able, smelling a sprig, to establish which field it comes exactly. The masters have at least five thousand olfactory raw materials in their heads, know how to recognize every nuance, build the perfume in their mind and then produce it in the laboratory. There are about three years to pack a high -end fragrance.
Why isn’t you good?
To become a teacher, hours of laboratory are needed during which to smell fragrances and then know how to recognize them. Training the sense of smell requires a huge commitment. After a few hours, I get the headache. I work with perfumes, but I don’t create them.
Fragrancia, by Paul Richardot, Garzanti (pages 224, euro 18).
The strangest fragrance that handled?
There are no bad smells, it depends with what they mix. For example, in many famous perfumes there are small quantities of molecules that recall the smell of the stool. And also a nuance called indole and recalls bad breath.
How was your atypical yellow born?
From an anecdote that I heard at a conference. A man had asked a laboratory for a fragrance that could also be drinking, to smuggle alcohol. So I imagined a mafia of the perfume and I started from there.
In the book there are prodigious machinery, the “Headspace”, capable of perfectly recreating a smell. Do they exist in reality?
Yes. Although they are more complicated to use and not portable. For now.
Paul Richardot (Ph. Marie Rouge).
And can you really reproduce the smell of a person, how do you try to make its protagonist Hélias?
Certain. Law enforcement officers are working on us to create olfactory, distinctive imprints of each, just like fingerprints. It is a brand new field but there is a lot of interest. Also on olfactory interrogations. A smell can unlock memories. One day he could solve mysteries for real.
Memory is the central theme of the book. Why did he start from there?
My first intention was to use perfumes to manipulate the mind, but then I realized that Patrick Süskind had already done it masterfully in the perfume. Then I thought about memory. All at least once we abandoned ourselves to memories by smelling. And they are the most vivid memories.
Why do they also involve emotions and sensations?
Exact. The area of the brain that interprets smells is the same as emotions and memories. When something familiar is sniff not only the images of the past, but also the sensations we had tried at that precise moment.
To really recall how you were in the past, you have to forget about who you are today, how do fragrant customers do thanks to drugs Svm?
We should, yes. But it is impossible. It always remembers with the perspective of the current ego, which necessarily alters the vision of the ego of the past and the events that have happened. Our experiences change us and also change the memories exhibitions.
Hélias, the investigator nose, has the characteristics of a serial character. Have you already foreseen a sequel?
I imagined two books with him protagonist. In this we speak of pleasant odors, in the following, we will speak above all about unpleasant odors.
Deborah Ameri