Perfume: The Story of a Murderer is a 1985 literary historical cross-genre novel by German writer Patrick Süskind.
With translations into 48 languages and over 20 million copies sold to date worldwide, 'Perfume' is one of the largest book sales among 20th Century German novels. The title remained in bestseller lists for about 9 years and received almost unanimously positive national and international critical acclaim. The novel was translated into English by John E. Woods and won the PEN Translation Prize in 1987.