Overview

13-year-old Chloe lives a drab existence with her parents in a suburb of Paris. Her life changes when she is offered the chance to obtain a scholarship - issued by a mysterious Foundation - to realise her dream and become a modern jazz dancer. But there is more to the Foundation and their suave representative than meets the eye. Soon Chloe finds a trap has closed in on her, and she's fallen prey to a sinister system in which she'll eventually become complicit. Over 30 years later, a cache of images surfaces on the internet and exposes the Foundation's exploitative, hidden purposes. The police put out a call for witnesses, and Chloe, now with a successful career as a dancer behind her, comes to realise the past has come back to haunt her. As her sense of self diffracts into multiple, contrasting images, there's no way out but to confront her double burden as victim and predator.

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9781787703582

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Reviews

A harrowing, painful story, draped in beautifully melancholy writing. * Les Echos Week-End * A beautiful, intense novel. * Madame Figaro *

The deep relevance and the nuanced portrayal of the myriad effects of abuse on their lives are skilfully done.... Layered and disquieting. * Kirkus Reviews * This of-the-moment novel that scrutinises how working-class girls' ambition to be dancers or excel at sport is used to manipulate them for abuse by wealthy men. That the procuring of these girls is done by a woman makes this novel especially pertinent. But there is, to the author's great credit, no hint of sensationalism in the presentation of this exploitation. * Irish Times * Lafon has done a wonderful job of depicting the structures that enable sexual violence, and its traumatic aftermath on the victims: the shame, the disgust, and the need for forgiveness. * Asymptote Journal * Expertly crafted in an immersive, captivating story. * Buzz Magazine * The great strength of Reeling is the way Lafon weaves together social failures that, on the surface, seem quite disparate. * LA Review of Books * A brilliantly written and unsettling novel about those who have power and those who don't - be it through age, social standing or money. Lola's writing is never sentimental, but is so powerful in ensuring understand exactly how these events have shaped Cleo's life and that the issues of power and consent are never clearly defined. I absolutely loved it. * Years of Reading Selfishly * A harrowing, painful story, draped in beautifully melancholy writing. * Les Echos Week-End * A beautiful, intense novel. * Madame Figaro * A fiercely feminist novel... compulsively readable too. * The New Yorker on The Little Communist that Never Smiled * A thought-provoking, surprisingly touching story about a little girl who shook up the world. * The Big Issue on The Little Communist that Never Smiled *

Author Information

A writer and a musician, Lola Lafon's formative years werespent between Sofia, Bucharest, and Paris during the time ofthe cold war. Her six novels are characterized by theirformal inventiveness. Her acclaimed novel Reeling, firstpublished in France in 2020 by Actes Sud, is a fracturedportrait of a young dancer, Cleo, whose life precipitates intosilence following a chilling event. Lafon also serves as hercharacters' spokeswoman, performing spoken word and musicalshows. Since graduating in French from Oxford University, HildegardeSerle has worked in London as a newspapersubeditor, mainly on The Independent and The Sunday Telegraph.

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