Smell : The Tale of a Fading Sense

Author: Bjørn Berge

Literary essays

Published on 1 July 2026 by REAKTION BOOKS in the United Kingdom.

Hardback | 256 pages
148 x 225 x 27 | 456g

The sense of smell is often linked to the dark, the antisocial, the primitive – the very opposite of modernity and progress. Today we live in an almost odourless world, where everything is reduced to images. Yet smell plays a vital role in how we relate to others and our surroundings, forming our experiences and our memories. Tracing a history of smell from the first ancient cities, through medieval plagues and the Industrial Revolution to the present day, this book is a tribute to the sense of smell in all its beauty and disgust. Along the way Bjørn Berge introduces us to twenty iconic scents – from blood and soil to the ocean – and invites readers to reflect on and reawaken their senses.