“I knew from personal experience how scents could come at you sideways, sneaking in, setting your mind and heart wandering.”
I’m Betty Martin with "Martin’s Must Reads "and that’s a quote from Erica Bauermesiter’s novel The Scent Keeper. As the story begins we meet Emmaline and her father John Hartfell who live alone on a remote island, catching and growing their own food. Built into their cabin walls are row upon row of five inch drawers of vials that have captured specific smells of specific points in time, on paper printed from a machine John invented.
When Emmaline turns twelve she discovers a secret lookout point that reveals to her who has been providing them with additional supplies and, through an effort to force her father to take her off the island, tragedy occurs. Emmaline is brought back from the brink of death by a loving, childless couple but she must now learn to live in society with her special ability to discern scents of both things and emotions. Her only friend at school is a boy who has a similar gift, only with sight.
In the prologue to the book, Emmaline says, “We are the unwitting carriers of our parents’ secrets, the ripples made by stones we never saw thrown. If I close my eyes and breathe, I can still smell the sparking, brittle moment my father broke my trust, and with it his heart. I can smell the honey of my mother’s promises.”
If there are certain scents that elicit a strong memory for you and if you believe that “smell is our most powerful sense,” then you must read The Scent Keeper by Erica Bauermesiter.