Definitely not as intense as ‘Perfume’ by Suskind, but it doesn’t necessarily suffer for that. The difference here is the difference between overt disgust and covert disgust.

You’ll easily read it in one sitting. Not just because of the length (under 100 pages), but also because of its seeming innocuousness. The story centres on Jonathan Noel, a shortcake-tin security guard at a Parisian bank who opted out of life long and lives a life of order and predictability where his most taxing task is to open the door for the director of the bank.

One day he opens his flat-door to find a pigeon on the landing. With a single streak of guano, his life begins to unravel. What seemed a simple read the first day stayed in my mind for sometimes, as I thought again and again about that diabolical bird.