The 2022 Kirkus Prize Winner for Nonfiction

Fragrance has long been used to mark who is civilized and who is barbaric, who is pure and who is polluted, who is free and who is damned—

Focusing their gaze on our most primordial sense, writer and perfumer Tanaïs weaves a brilliant and expansive memoir, a reckoning that offers a critical, alternate history of South Asia from an American Bangladeshi Muslim femme perspective. From stories of their childhood in the South, Midwest, and New York; to transcendent experiences with lovers, psychedelics, and fragrances; to trips home to their motherland, Tanaïs builds a universe of memories and scent: a sensorium. Alongside their personal history, and at the very heart of this work, is an interrogation of the ancient violence of caste, rape culture, patriarchy, war, and the inherited ancestral trauma of being from a lush land constantly denuded, a land still threatened and disappearing because of colonization, capitalism, and climate change. 

Structured like a perfume—moving from base to heart to head notes—IN SENSORIUM interlaces eons of South Asian perfume history, erotic and religious texts, survivor testimonies, and material culture with memoir. In Sensorium is archive and art, illuminating the great crises of our time with the language of Liberation.

How does the history of scent reveal the fault lines of power, from colonialism to caste?

• Perfumery as Memoir: Structured like a perfume with base, heart, and head notes, this work follows the author’s journey from a childhood in the American South to their motherland of Bangladesh.
• A Sensory History: Discover a brilliant, alternate history of South Asia told through its most primordial sense, weaving together eons of perfume history, erotic texts, and material culture.
• Decolonization through Scent: An urgent interrogation of how fragrance has been used to enforce colonization, caste, and patriarchy—and how it can become a language of Liberation.
• Cultural Criticism: From an American Bangladeshi Muslim femme perspective, Tanaïs offers a powerful critique of capitalism, climate change, and inherited ancestral trauma.