The Scent of Flowers at Night by Leila Slimani

The Scent of Flowers at Night by Leila SlimaniIn 2019, Leila Slimani was commissioned by her editor to spend a sleepless night alone in a museum and to document the experience. Here, we find her grappling with the thoughts and ideas that emerge from her solitude as she walks the halls of the Punta della Dogana in Venice, interrogating her life as a woman, a writer and a daughter. In a space where old meets new, she beholds her past and present; surrounded by art, she explores what it means to

genus and species

'I wrote to the zoo to send me a pet

Colonisation kicked off a slow and cumulative process of violence

finds herself questioning the diagnosis of her sanity or insanity

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Scenes like this are being repeated around the world as societies reassess memorials that no longer reflect todays values

reenters Graham's life

They're kids—they make mistakes

For forty years he ruled

She wants to know exactly what Oscar considered more important than coming to school last week

For the next twenty-three years

he's lost faith in everything precious to him