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Mohrbooks Literary Agency
Sebastian Ritscher
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English
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THE PERFUME BURNED HIS EYES

Michael Imperioli

A teenager develops an unlikely friendship with Lou Reed in 1970s NYC, in a standout debut from TV/film star Michael Imperioli (The Sopranos, etc.)
Matthew is a sixteen-year-old boy living in Jackson Heights, Queens, in 1976. After he loses his two most important male role models, his father and grandfather, his mother uses her inheritance to uproot Matthew and herself to a posh apartment building in Manhattan. Although only three miles away from his boyhood home, "the city" is a completely new and strange world to Matthew.

Matthew soon befriends (and becomes a factotum of sorts to) Lou Reed, who lives with his transgender girlfriend Rachel in the same building. The artistic-shamanic rocker eventually becomes an unorthodox father figure to Matthew, who finds himself head over heels for the mysterious Veronica, a wise-beyond-her-years girl he meets at his new school.

The novel is written from the point of view of Matthew at age eighteen, two years after the story begins, and concludes with an epilogue in the year 2013, three days after Lou Reed's death, with Matthew in his fifties.

MICHAEL IMPERIOLI is best known for his starring role as Christopher Moltisanti in the acclaimed TV series The Sopranos, which earned him a Best Supporting Actor Emmy Award. He also wrote five episodes of the show and was co-screenwriter of the film Summer of Sam, directed by Spike Lee. Imperioli has appeared in six of Lee's films and has also acted in films by Martin Scorsese, Abel Ferrara, Walter Hill, Peter Jackson, and the Hughes Brothers. Upcoming projects include Bruno de Almeida's Cabaret Maxime, The Last Full Measure alongside Peter Fonda, Christopher Plummer, and William Hurt, and ABC's Alex, Inc.
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Published 2018-04-03 by Akashic Books

Comments

Actor Imperioli (The Sopranos) delivers a spot-on coming-of- age novel... A winner...

Imperioli's lived-in details about the city help make the world feel realistic... [The novel] is an immersive trip into its narrator's memories of a turbulent time. Some fictional trips into 1970s New York abound with nostalgia; this novel memorably opts for grit and heartbreak.

Michael Imperioli is back (after never really going away): The man best known for his career-defining role as the hothead wiseguy Christopher Moltisanti in The Sopranos is back in the spotlight. This time around, he's being propelled by a leading role in another HBO show and a fresh wave of cultural relevance for The Sopranos, which is finding a new - and younger - fandom. Read more...

Vividly imagined, compelling, and sympathetic, The Perfume Burned His Eyes convinces with the force of its emotional intensity.

Interview: Michael Imperioli Can Keep a Secret The man famous for getting whacked on-screen survived the White Lotus finale. Could he check in for another season? He'll never tell... Read more...

A restless Queens teenager becomes the protégé of music legend Lou Reed in Imperioli's energetic debut novel... Matthew's first-person narrative is full of endearing vulnerability, immediacy, and authenticity. This is a sweet and nostalgic coming-of-age novel.

France: Editions Autrement ; Italy: Neri Pozza

A coming-of-age tale dashed with relatable angst and humor.

An edgy coming-of-age romp set in New York City prominently featuring the 'character' of rocker Lou Reed.

Screenwriter and Emmy-winning actor Imperioli's first novel is the atmospheric coming-of-age story of 17-year-old Matthew, whose mother moves them from Queens to a posh apartment in Manhattan in 1976... Matt is a not an atypical teenager - think Holden Caulfield without the cynicism - but, often afraid and awkward, he is a reactor, not an actor, until the end of the novel, which, without foreshadowing, comes as a harrowing surprise... Imperioli can definitely write, and he gets high marks for the verisimilitude and empathy that he evokes in this fine crossover novel.