Genoa, Italy, 1910

Two little girls were born and grew up in a mean section of Genoa where the buildings so crowded each other the sun never reached the lower floors. They were separated for a time when one moved away. When they met as women, they quickly became fast friends all over again. Angela, the one who had left, was making a good living as a prostitute, while Clotilde was slaving away for her ungrateful brothers. They joined forces and did so well that, with a little help from one of her patrons, Clotilde, now called Madame C, was able to buy a brothel, the Luna, with room for nine girls. Clotilde and Angela had a good life until Angela died giving birth to a daughter. Madam C took the baby as her own, and she and her girls doted on little Rosa. Clotilde kept Rosa apart from the workings of the brothel and protected her with lies about a game being played in the house. As a result, Rosa grew up naive about sex, with some strange ideas of the "game." Trouble arose at Rosa's sixteenth birthday celebration that caused a huge rift between Rosa and Clotilde that resulted in Rosa leaving the brothel.

Rosa has no friends outside the Luna; the community shuns her as a prostitute's daughter, though she is still in ignorance of what that means. But wait, she does have a friend in Isabel, an old woman feared by the neighborhood as a witch. A false love lured Isabel away from her home in Costa Rica and brought her to Genoa. Since then, she's eked out a small living distilling flowers and plants into perfumed oils, an art she has been teaching to Rosa. Isabel helped Rosa brew an oil that was special to her: Rosa's perfect oil. The oil, combined with Rosa's own unique chemistry, produced a scent that was to have a mystical affect on her life. That scent was in large part responsible for the trouble at her birthday party, and it will play an even greater role when she meets the love of her life.

THE SCENT OF ROSA'S OIL has an atmosphere as unusual as its title. It reads almost like an allegory where one accepts less than reality for a higher cause, though I'm not positive I've plumbed its lesson. The obvious one, of course, is that one shouldn't judge the worth of a person without walking in his or her shoes. But is there also the lesson that perfectly good people may live happy and comfortable lives outside the normal ethos of one's society? The Luna is a world of its own where its inhabitants are loving towards a child and kindly to each other. It's only with the unknowing hurt Rosa causes at her party that ill will explodes at Luna.

All that aside, THE SCENT OF ROSA'S OIL is a captivating reading experience with an original plot and an unusual setting. As a native of Genoa, Ms. Simoni easily pulls readers into that port town when the twentieth century was hurrying into moderninity side by side with older ways. Renato, Rosa's love-to-be, is a prime example of a young man wrestling for change. The love story between them that begins about half-way in adds touches of both romance and suspense.

With its fresh plot, engaging characters and slightly mystic quality, THE SCENT OF ROSA'S OIL merits a place on the 2008 reading list of everyone looking for something different.

Jane Bowers