How Kurt Cobain's favorite novel appears in Nirvana's final album

Posted on February 20, 2023 at 8:00 AM by Sadye Scott-Hainchek

Musician Kurt Cobain was born on this day in 1967.

What does that have to do with a book blog? Well, the Nirvana frontman spent the final few months of his life toting around a beloved novel, one whose effect is seen throughout Nirvana's final album, In Utero.

That novel is Patrick Süskind’s Perfume, which Cobain told an interviewer that he'd read about ten times.

Perfume, set in 18th-century France, follows a street urchin whose supernaturally strong sense of smell lifts him out of squalor as he becomes the age's greatest perfumer.

You can read about how the novel Perfume found its way into Nirvana's In Utero at Literary Hub.