Abstract
The air that we breathe is axiomatic for something taken for granted. But smells are potent and important, affecting us more than we realize. This chapter explores how Nadeem Aslam and Monica Ali pour odours into their novels of the 2000s. After consideration of the most well-known mainstream odoriferous fiction, Patrick Süskind’s Perfume, the chapter argues that Aslam’s Maps for Lost Lovers (2004) is saturated with heady fragrances. These waft over even the most difficult subjects, such as violent racist abuse in northern England. In Ali’s Brick Lane (2003), a campaign by the extremist group Bengal Tigers is bound up with smell diction, the greedy moneylender Mrs Islam is olfactorily othered, and part of protagonist Nazneen’s attraction for Karim stems from his refreshing lime smell.
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Chambers, C. (2019). Fiction of Olfaction: Nadeem Aslam’s Maps for Lost Lovers and Monica Ali’s Brick Lane. In: Making Sense of Contemporary British Muslim Novels. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-52089-0_3
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