The Perfumist of Paris

The Perfumist of Paris (2023) is the third and final book in the Jaipur Trilogy written by Indian American author Alka Joshi. Joshi was born in Jodhpur, India, and moved with her family to the United States in the 1960s. Lakshmi, the main character of the first two novels in the Jaipur Trilogy—The Henna Artist (2020) and The Secret Keeper of Jaipur (2021)—is based loosely on Joshi’s mother, who ensured that her daughters had the kinds of choices and opportunities she did not have while growing up. Set between 1955 and 1981, this historical fiction series explores the social impacts of India’s postcolonial development through the experiences of its strong female characters. The Perfumist of Paris is set between 1974 and 1981, and it explores themes related to patriarchal ideas and gender roles. The novel’s protagonist Radha, who is Lakshmi’s younger sister, struggles to find balance between her roles as mother, wife, and ambitious aspiring perfumer. Books in the Jaipur Trilogy have been featured as Reese Witherspoon Book Club Picks, and there is a Miramax TV/Netflix series based on The Henna Artist.

This study guide refers to the 2023 Kindle e-book Edition.

Content Warning: This guide refers to the source text’s treatment of domestic abuse.

Plot Summary

Set 17 years after the events of The Henna Artist, The Perfumist of Paris continues with Radha’s story. She has now moved to Paris and started a family of her own to find distance from her disastrous love affair and pregnancy when she was a 13-year-old in The Henna Artist; at the end of that novel, her sister, Lakshmi, forced her to give up her son for adoption. In the present, on the surface, Radha enjoys her roles as wife to Pierre, mother to girls Shanti and Asha, and aspiring perfumer at the prestigious House of Yves in Paris. Inside, however, Radha struggles as she keeps her son Niki’s existence a secret from her family and represses painful memories of her life in India. Though she is a devoted mother and natural perfumer, her inner insecurities and denial of her whole self manifest in her striving for perfection in all aspects of her life, and she struggles because her identities as a mother and a professional are often at odds.

Her boss, master perfumer Delphine, challenges her to create a scent for a mysterious client based on the painting Olympia by Édouard Manet. This prompts Radha’s carefully compartmentalized identities to collide. As she pushes herself to impress the client and her mentor Delphine, her relationship with her husband Pierre becomes strained. Juggling her daughter Shanti’s difficult behaviors, Pierre’s disapproval of her ambitions, and the pressure of creating the elusive fragrance, Radha finds herself facing failure in many spheres of her life. She also neglects her relationships with her friend, Mathilde, and mother-in-law, Florence. Her sister Lakshmi advises her to visit Agra where her connection to the courtesans may turn up the fragrance she is missing. Delphine approves the business trip to Agra, but Radha worries she is neglecting her daughters and feels the strain worsen in her relationship with Pierre.

In Agra, Radha is glad to be on familiar soil but is also tormented by memories of her past. She makes social blunders that cast her as an outsider, changing her assumptions about herself. Eventually, with the help of the courtesans Havi and Nasreen, Radha acquires the perfect base fragrance for her perfume: It is a rain-scented oil made from monsoon mud. However, she soon encounters more problems with the news that her son Niki has gone to Paris in search of her, believing she has offered him a scholarship to study abroad. Niki’s adoptive mother Kanta reveals that the boy’s biological father’s ruthless family wants to win his favor and recruit him for their corrupt family businesses by offering him the scholarship. Kanta begs Radha to reconnect with Niki and convince him to forget the scholarship and return home. Though Radha has worked to compartmentalize her many identities and repress her past, the impending discovery of her secrets forces her to recognize her whole self and own her past.

Back in Paris, Niki arrives at Radha’s apartment, and she passes him off as her cousin. Her mother-in-law, Florence, discovers Radha’s secret, but instead of weaponizing the information against her, Florence is supportive. This gives Radha the courage to reconnect with Niki and tell Pierre the truth about her past. While her personal life implodes, her work life offers no reprieve as she realizes that someone is sabotaging her work on the new fragrance. She suspects the dour chemist Michel, but it is Ferdinand, the seemingly friendly nephew of the proprietor, who steals her perfectly balanced fragrance and passes her work off as his own. Delphine and Michel join Radha in counter-sabotaging Ferdinand’s work, and the client chooses Radha’s formulation in the end. The mysterious client turns out to be Sheela Sharma Singh, the wife of Niki’s biological father Ravi Singh. Sheela had once bullied Radha in Jaipur and eventually married Ravi; now, she tells Radha that she is divorcing Ravi. She apologizes for their past tension and offers Radha a contract to lead the development of her fragrance line inspired by forgotten artists’ models throughout history. Radha leverages an arts scholarship for Niki from Sheela before the two agree to do business. Radha’s sense of fulfillment after this deal is short-lived, though, for Mathilde confesses to a sexual tryst with Pierre. Soon after, Radha and Pierre decide to get a divorce.

Toward the conclusion of this novel, Joshi not only ties up loose ends in Radha’s story but revisits and ties up the stories of Lakshmi and her adopted son, Malik, from other books in the trilogy. Though divorced, Radha enjoys a successful career in Paris before returning to India to start her own perfumery that will develop more sustainable substitutes for rare fragrance components like musk and sandalwood. Her daughters thrive, spending time between Paris and Shimla, where Radha lives. After graduation, Niki becomes an art restorer in Italy, with plans to return and restore works in India someday. The novel ends with the happy pronouncement that Malik and his wife Nimmi are expecting a child, and the growing family anticipates a bright future.