Forte di questa facoltà, di quest'unica qualità, Grenouille decide di diventare il più grande profumiere del mondo, e il lettore lo segue nel suo peregrinare tra botteghe odorose, apprendista stregone che supera in breve ogni maestro passando dalla popolosa e fetida Parigi a Grasse, città dei profumieri nell'ariosa Provenza. E, crescendo, scopre di possedere un dono inestimabile: una prodigiosa capacità di percepire e distinguere gli odori. He has withdrawn from the literary scene in Germany and never grants interviews or allows photos.Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, nato il 17 luglio 1783 nel luogo più puzzolente di Francia, il Cimetière des Innocents di Parigi, rifiutato dalla madre fin dal momento della nascita, rifiutato dalle balie perché non ha l'odore che dovrebbero avere i neonati, anzi perché 'non ha nessun odore', rifiutato dagli istituti religiosi, riesce a sopravvivere a dispetto di tutto e di tutti. Süskind lives as a recluse in Munich, in Seeheim (Lake Starnberg), and in France. Perfume was on the bestselling list of the German weekly news magazine Der Spiegel for nine years. This was made into a film in 2006 by Tom Tykwer. His best-known work is the internationally acclaimed bestseller Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (1985).

He rejected other awards, like the FAZ-Literaturpreis, the Tukan-Preis (de), and the Gutenbergpreis. For his screenplay of Rossini, directed by Helmut Dietl, he won the Screenplay Prize of the German Department for Culture in 1996. Süskind was also successful as a screenwriter for the TV productions Monaco Franze (1983) and Kir Royal (1987), among others. In the 1984-85 theatrical season, the play was performed more than 500 times. Financially supported by his parents, he moved to Paris where he wrote 'mainly short, unpublished fiction and longer screenplays which were not made into films.' In 1981, he had his breakthrough with the play Der Kontrabaß (The Double Bass), which was originally conceived as a radio play. Süskind studied Medieval and Modern History at the University of Munich and in Aix-en-Provence from 1968-1974, but never graduated. His mother worked as a sports trainer his older brother Martin E. Patrick Süskind went to school in Holzhausen, a little Bavarian village.

His father was writer and journalist Wilhelm Emanuel Süskind, who worked for the Süddeutsche Zeitung and is famous as the co-author of the well-known Aus dem Wörterbuch des Unmenschen (From the Dictionary of an Inhuman), a critical collection of essays on the language of the Nazi era. Süskind was born in Ambach am Starnberger See, near Munich in Germany. Patrick Süskind is a German writer and screenwriter, best known for his internationally acclaimed novel Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, first published in 1985.

Il profumo by Patrick Süskind