A celebration of our olfactory sense . The sense of smell is often linked to the dark, the antisocial, the primitive--the very opposite of modernity and progress. Today, we live in an almost odorless world, where everything is reduced to images. Yet smell plays a vital role in how we relate to others and our surroundings, forming our experiences and our memories. Tracing a history of smell from the first ancient cities through medieval plagues and the Industrial Revolution to the present day, this book is a tribute to the sense of smell in all its beauty and disgust. Along the way, Bjørn Berge introduces us to twenty iconic scents--from blood and soil to the ocean--and invites readers to reflect on and reawaken their senses.