In a Nutshell:

Arno, a high-ranking Dutch civil servant meets Myrna, a Caribbean envvironmentalist. Arno suffers from insomnia and Myra can potentially help him to recover from his insomnia through a unique way of storytelling, that she has inherited.

Themes:

Love, power, colonialism and culture clash.

A Quote:

“We, the non-Westerners, non-white, non-Eurochristians have a much bigger problem with culture shock.”

An Observation:

I enjoyed how the storytelling and the story between A and M were interwoven.

Stockists:

Want to read Love’s Perfumes? Find it here.

Writer: Rita Rahman

Rita Rahman was born in 1952 in Aruba but grew up in Suriname. She left in 1980 to work for the Ministry of Education in the Netherlands. Since then she has worked in international development. In 2000 she was appointed deputy ambassador in the Dutch Embassy in New Delhi.

Translator: Paul Vincent

Paul Vincent (UK) studied at Cambridge and in Amsterdam, and after teaching Dutch at the University of London for over twenty years became a full-time translator in 1989. Since then he has published a wide variety of translated poetry, non-fiction, and fiction. He is a member of the Society of Dutch Literature in Leiden, and has won the Reid Prize for poetry translation, the Vondel Prize for Dutch-English translation, and (jointly) the Oxford-Weidenfeld Prize.

Publisher: Penguin Books

Publishing Date: 01.01.2003

A bit about me!

A bit about me, my name is Jess Andoh-Thayre. I am from Brixton, South London. I currently live in Cambodia. Before living here in Cambodia, I lived in Tanzania with my husband, who is a diplomat. I have also lived in Chile and Spain. I am a French, Spanish and English as an Additional Language (EAL) teacher. I recently qualified as a SENCo (Special Educational Needs Coordinator). After taking three years off to have a baby in a pandemic and also retrain, I have just returned to work as an Elementary Learning Support Teacher.