The strange and unexpected behaviors of the four main characters reveal the illusory idea of trying to apprehend one’s identity. Imena, a student of perfumery, arrives in Marrakech in an attempt to free herself from the overbearing intensity of her boyfriend Patricio, a philosophy professor at l’Université Paris-Sorbonne. She takes residence behind the red door of an allegorical hotel whose attendant, the striped tunic, officiates life under an aura of mysticism and danger. René, Patricio’s junior colleague, decides to leave for Guadeloupe in search for his gender identity, a painful and transformative search that delivers him beyond himself. After Imena secludes herself in her hotel room trying to complete her ultimate perfume creation, the four individual lives finally coalesce in the courtyard where four flowering orange trees witness the thaumaturgy.
Published by Spuyten Duyvil Press
"Blending actuality and fantasy, Armenteros creates a philosophical underpinning and psychological probity in a compelling allegorical imperative." American Book Review
"Armenteros charges that air—alternately perfumed and rancid—to deliver a compellingly erratic narrative." Rain Taxi