A LOS ANGELES TIMES TOP 10 BEST BOOK OF THE SUMMER A Gentleman in Moscow meets "Moulin Rouge" in this stylish, sexy page-turner set in Paris on the eve of World War II, where Clementine, a queer American ex-pat and notorious thief, is drawn out of retirement and into one last scam when the Nazis invade. "[A] superb novel . . . This is historical fiction at its finest, vivid and beautifully rendered."--EMILY ST JOHN MANDEL author of The Glass Hotel Clementine is a seventy-two year-old reformed con artist with a penchant for impeccably tailored suits. Her life of crime has led her from the uber-wealthy perfume junkies of belle epoque Manhattan, to the scented butterflies of Costa Rica, to the spice markets of Marrakech, and finally the bordellos of Paris, where she settles down in 1930 and opens a shop bottling her favorite extracts for the ladies of the cabarets. Now it's 1941 and Clem's favorite haunt, Madame Boulette's, is crawling with Nazis, while Clem's people--the outsiders, the artists, and the hustlers who used to call it home--are disappearing. Clem's first instinct is to go to ground--it's a frigid Paris winter and she's too old to put up a fight. But when the cabaret's prize songbird, Zoe St. Angel, recruits Clem to steal the recipe book of a now-missing famous Parisian perfumer, she can't say no. Her mark is Oskar Voss, a Francophile Nazi bureaucrat, who wants the book and Clem's expertise to himself. Hoping to buy the time and trust she needs to pull off her scheme, Clem settles on a novel strategy: Telling Voss the truth about the life and loves she came to Paris to escape. Complete with romance, espionage, champagne towers, and haute couture, this full-tilt sensory experience is a dazzling portrait of the underground resistance of twentieth-century Paris and a passionate love letter to the power of beauty and community in the face of insidious hate.
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“The voice of this audiobook—part thriller, part literary novel—is delivered with particular flair and conviction by narrator Gabrielle de Cuir…This is a novel of atmosphere, and Charlie’s tart, worldly observations roll off de Cuir’s tongue with nonchalance—while her German adversary parries with a sleepy, serpentine menace…[and] make this fascinating listening.”
— AudioFile
“Historical fiction at its finest."
— Emily St. John Mandel, #1 New York Times bestselling author“Clementine is one of the best protagonists of the summer.”
— Los Angeles Times“A hint of Moulin Rouge, a whiff of Kristin Hannah’s The Nightingale, a little spritz of Hitchcock’s To Catch a Thief…a pulse-pounding thriller and a sensuous experience.”
— Oprah Daily“Entrancing…The writing is exquisite, each well-chosen word bringing to elegant life a Paris that no longer exists…Highly recommended.”
— Historical Novels Review“Schaffert imbues this story of resistance, love, and loss with hefty emotion…The Perfume Thief has some thrilling moments, plenty of suspense, and frequently high stakes.”
— Criminal ElementBe the first to write a review about this audiobook!
Timothy Schaffert is the author of five previous novels: The Swan Gondola, The Coffins of Little Hope, Devils in the Sugar Shop, The Singing and Dancing Daughters of God, and The Phantom Limbs of the Rollow Sisters. He is a professor of English and director of creative writing at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and he writes the column “The Eccentricities of Gentlemen” for the popular lifestyle magazine Enchanted Living.
Gabrielle de Cuir, award-winning narrator, has narrated over three hundred titles and specializes in fantasy, humor, and titles requiring extensive foreign language and accent skills. She was a cowinner of the Audie Award for best narration in 2011 and a three-time finalist for the Audie and has garnered six AudioFile Earphones Awards. Her “velvet touch” as an actor’s director has earned her a special place in the audiobook world as the foremost producer for bestselling authors and celebrities.
Stefan Rudnicki first became involved with audiobooks in 1994. Now a Grammy-winning audiobook producer, he has worked on more than five thousand audiobooks as a narrator, writer, producer, or director. He has narrated more than nine hundred audiobooks. A recipient of multiple AudioFile Earphones Awards, he was presented the coveted Audie Award for solo narration in 2005, 2007, and 2014, and was named one of AudioFile’s Golden Voices in 2012.