The scent of flowers at night

'A revelation' KATY HESSEL'Brilliant' OBSERVEROver one night, alone in the Punta della Dogana Museum in Venice, Leïla Slimani grapples with the self as it is revealed in solitude.

In a place of old and new, she confronts her past and her present, through her life as a Moroccan woman, as a writer, and as a daughter.

Surrounded by art, she explores what it means to behold and clasp beauty; enveloped by night, she confronts the meaning of life and death. Translated from the French by Sam Taylor