When Stina, a burgeoning writer, decamps to her mother’s summer house for the winter to write a book, her trip overlaps for one day (and one steamy night) with a brawny fisherman named Ulv. While she struggles to gain traction with her novel, her fixation on the mysterious seafarer results in countless unsent letters, the contents of which chronicle the spiraling psyche of lust and longing. Set on the desolate west coast of Denmark during the tourist off-season, Every Storm a Serenade is a meditative masterwork that will lull you with its well-designed sentences and intimate tone.

Don’t be detoured by perceptions of ambergris, this is an everyday scent for those with discriminating taste.