Perfume and Pain

“Perceptive and witty—like a Sally Rooney novel set in Southern California.” —Star Tribune (Minneapolis)

“It’s this author’s best work yet. A Sapphic roller-coaster ride.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

A controversial LA author attempts to revive her career and finally find true love in this hilarious nod to 1950s lesbian pulp fiction.

Having recently moved both herself and her formidable perfume bottle collection into a tiny bungalow in Los Angeles, mid-list author Astrid Dahl finds herself back in the Zoom writer’s group she cofounded, Sapphic Scribes, after an incident that leaves her and her career lightly canceled. But she temporarily forgets all that by throwing herself into a few sexy distractions—like Ivy, a grad student researching 1950s lesbian pulp who smells like metallic orchids, or her new neighbor, Penelope, who smells like pat