The Scent Keeper

by Erica Bauermeister, Gabra Zackman (Read by)

Overview

Erica Bauermeister, the national bestselling author of The School of Essential Ingredients, presents a moving and evocative coming-of-age novel about childhood stories, families lost and found, and how a fragrance conjures memories capable of shaping the course of our lives.

Emmeline lives an enchanted childhood on a remote island with her father, who teaches her about the natural world through her senses. What he won’t explain are the mysterious scents stored in the drawers that line the walls of their cabin, or the origin of the machine that creates them. As Emmeline grows, however, so too does her curiosity, until one day the unforeseen happens, and Emmeline is vaulted out into the real world—a place of love, betrayal, ambition, and revenge. To understand her past, Emmeline must unlock the clues to her identity, a quest that challenges the limits of her heart and imagination.

Lyrical and immersive, The Scent Keeper explores the provocative beauty of scent, the way it can reveal hidden truths, lead us to the person we seek, and even help us find our way back home.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250260284
Publication date:	06/01/2019
Product dimensions:	6.50(w) x 1.50(h) x 9.50(d)

About the Author

Erica Bauermeister is the author of the bestselling novel The School of Essential Ingredients, Joy for Beginners, and The Lost Art of Mixing. She is also the co-author of non-fiction works, 500 Great Books by Women: A Reader’s Guide and Let’s Hear It For the Girls: 375 Great Books for Readers 2-14.

She has a PhD in literature from the University of Washington, and has taught there and at Antioch University. She is a founding member of the Seattle7Writers and currently lives in Port Townsend, Washington.

Reading Group Guide

General questions:

1. What is the smell of childhood for you?

2. If you could preserve one scent, what would it be?

3. If technology was not an issue, what invention would you create?

4. In the course of the book, Emmeline lives on the island, in Secret Cove, and in the city. Each location affected her profoundly and differently. How have the places you’ve lived affected you?

Nightingale/scent questions:

5. What do you think the story of the Nightingale means to John? To Emmeline? Why do you think John cut it from the book?

6. The Nightingale machine is a fi ctional invention. Discuss its role in the book.

7. Both John and Victoria have a wall of scents. What do you think they mean to each of the characters?

8. Emmeline’s father strives to preserve memories through scent. Emmeline’s mother uses scent to infl uence others. Rene is trying to re-create scents that are disappearing in the modern world. What are the up- and downsides to their actions?

9. What do you think about Emmeline’s relationship with scent? How does it change as she grows older?

Emotional Arc questions/Parents:

10. Secrets are an important element in The Scent Keeper. Which secrets do you think the characters were right to keep? Which should they have told and when?

11. What do you think about John’s decision to take Emmeline to the island? How do you feel about their relationship?

12. What do you think was the most important lesson that Emmeline learned on the island?

13. At one point, Emmeline comes to understand her father has been revealing his past through stories. What do you think he’d been trying to tell her?

14. Emmeline experiences the deaths of Cleo, her father, and Dodge. How does her reaction to each differ? What does each one tell us about her?

15. How do you see Emmeline’s relationship with her parents change throughout the book?

16. What do you think happens at the end of the book?

Fisher:

17. What role does Fisher plays in Emmeline’s life? How does that change?

18. What do you think about Emmeline’s decision to take Fisher to the island? How does it compare to her father’s decision to take her there as a baby?

19. Emmeline blames herself for her father’s death, and for the confrontation between Fisher and his father. Do you think she was right to do so?

20. Fisher chose to leave his abusive father (and Emmeline). His mother chose to stay. What do you think about each of their decisions?

21. At one point in the book, Fisher’s mother says: “Martin used to tell me how salmon always return to the same stream to spawn. They say it’s the smell that draws them upstream. Maybe we’re more like fish than we think.” How does this apply to the characters in the book? Do you agree with the statement?

Literary questions:

22. Several chapter titles are repeated in the book. Why do you think that is?

23. The Scent Keeper is told through Emmeline’s perspective. Imagine if it had been told through the varying perspectives of the major characters—Emmeline, Fisher, John, and Victoria. How would that change the book?

24. How does the prologue affect your reading of the rest of the novel? How would the book have been different if it had come at the end?

25. Fairy tales and stories are present throughout the book. What is their role in the book? In our lives?

Editorial Reviews

"Told in a lyrical, haunting prose, the story provides fascinating information about the ways in which different fragrances can impact human behavior and the struggles of finding one's own identity. An artfully crafted coming-of-age story that will take the reader on an exquisite olfactory adventure. " - Kirkus

"This coming-of-age story delights the senses, immersing the reader in the sights, sounds, and scents of the wilderness and city life. Fans of Mary Simses and Jennifer Close will fall in love with Bauermeister's plucky heroine, the layers of family secrets, the lush settings, and the painfully tender relationships." - Booklist

"Woven through [Emmeline's] life's journey is a multi-layered story of fragrance and its evocative power, as strong and tenacious as this sensuous novel's plucky heroine." - Shelf Awareness, Starred Review

“[A] magical novel…Blending fantasy with a realist family drama, Bauermeister’s novel will enchant fans of Katherine Paterson.” - Publishers Weekly

"For lovers of Chocolat, The Scent Keeper evokes emotion and magic through the senses." –Jennie Shortridge, author of Eating Heaven

"A fascinating, totally original and captivating tale about how the love that separates us is also the love that keeps us together."—M.J. Rose, New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Lost Fragrances

"The author hits it out of the park with the most superb sense of place I've read in a long time. It's a coming of age tale, featuring a young heroine as narrator who makes serious mistakes, learns much from them, and ultimately redeems herself. Beautifully and masterfully written. I highly recommend it." - Elizabeth George, New York Times and international bestselling author

"Bauermeister deftly weaves plot and language into a luminous discovery of love—for another person, for a place, and ultimately for oneself." - Carol Cassella, national bestselling author of Oxygen

"Bauermeister's heroine Emmeline might also be kin to Jane Eyre. Heartbreaking, thrilling, and wonderfully instructive, this sensual novel is pure pleasure reading."—Adrianne Harun, bestselling author of A Man Came Out of A Door in the Mountain

"Some very special books have the power to change the reader—The Scent Keeper is one of those. This is a book to be devoured, no, to be inhaled, and held deeply." - Dave Boling, author of Guernica

“One of the most enchanting, unique books I’ve ever read.” - Anna Quinn, author of The Night Child and owner The Writers’ Workshop and Imprint Bookstore

From the Publisher

2019-03-05

A young girl with a unique talent for identifying scents embarks on a journey of self-discovery when she's ripped from her intensely isolated childhood home.

Emmeline has lived with her father on an otherwise uninhabited island in the Pacific Northwest for as long as she can remember. Her father teaches her to read, to forage for food, and to hone her sense of smell. Emmeline doesn't question their isolation, as she's known nothing else. She adores the long days learning from her father, listening to fairy tales, and watching him use his mysterious machine. The machine produces "scent-papers" that her father stashes inside small glass bottles, each paper preserving a one-of-a-kind scent. When tragedy strikes, Emmeline is forced to relocate to the mainland. She is taken in by a kind, childless couple in a seaside village. Similar to a wild animal suddenly brought into captivity, 12-year-old Emmeline struggles to adapt. As she slowly establishes a new life, beginning school and navigating adolescence, questions about her father, her absentee mother, and her own identity continue to grow. The more she learns about her past, the harder it becomes to reconcile her childhood with her future. Told entirely from Emmeline's perspective, the novel contains three distinct sections. The first, where Emmeline is living in the wild, is suffused with wonder and enchantment. The author deftly describes the lush island and the awe of a little girl watching her father fill a cabin with mysterious bottles full of scents and dreams. Once Emmeline moves to the mainland, the patina of her youth wears off, and much of the magic of the story goes with it. Even so, the author's ability to describe scents, the nature in which they evolve, and how deeply they are tied to memory and emotion provides sufficient heft to keep the novel engaging and worthwhile. Told in a lyrical, haunting prose, the story provides fascinating information about the ways in which different fragrances can impact human behavior and the struggles of finding one's own identity.

An artfully crafted coming-of-age story that will take the reader on an exquisite olfactory adventure.

Kirkus Reviews