“Sharp on the social and erotic uses of odor. . . . Berge uses these stories to illustrate one of his recurring themes: What disgusts in one context can delight in another. To mismanage one’s scent in the early modern period was to risk being judged dirty, diseased or morally suspect. Fragrance and stench became shorthand for clean and unclean, respectable and disreputable, ‘us’ and ‘them.’ . . . His book moves from odor to odor, asking what certain smells evoke and what their disappearance might mean. Smell can be wonderfully atmospheric.”

Kathryn Hughes | The Wall Street Journal

"A noble attempt to evoke the olfactory past through an imaginative connection to noses other than our own. . . . An overarching thesis of Berge’s book is that the olfactory environ­ment has been flattened by modern technology, leading to a diminished engagement with the world around us. It’s an architect’s plea to consider smell, to follow our noses as an es­sential element of design."

Laurence A. Marschall | Natural History

“Congenial . . . and if you are interested in the subject, you will find some beguiling odds and ends here.”

John Wilson | First Things

"[Contains] reams of delightful facts on all matters olfactory. . . . Berge . . . writes with the erudition and whimsy of W. G. Sebald."

Rose George | The Spectator

“Berge invites us across a threshold most of us have forgotten how to cross—into a world alive with scent. Here, blood speaks in metallic whispers and stone exhales its ancient mineral breath. In an age that sanitizes and distances, this poignant book amounts to a radical act of reclamation.”

Anahita Mekanik, scent designer and cofounder of ScenTronix

“Berge offers us a treasure trove of insight and reflection. The text sharpens your senses and makes you appreciate the endless variety the world has to offer, which powerful forces are recklessly striving to flatten, homogenize, and standardize.”

Dagbladet, on the Norwegian edition

“A literary treasure trove on the subject of smell, this book explores the sense of smell with a broad perspective. . . . We learn how security, ruin, bliss, fear, longing and lust can smell—and even nothingness has a scent.”

Gerfried Pongratz | Spektrum der Wissenschaft, on the Norwegian edition

“In his remarkable book Berge begins with a silent revolt: against the primacy of the visual, against the neglect of the atmospheric, against a world that limits itself to talking and showing. [This book is] a philosophy of the atmospheric. An attention to that which does not shout, yet endures.”

Fairewirtschaft.de (Fair Market Economy), on the Norwegian edition