Reeling - Lola Lafon

An impassioned novel on the consequences of sexual exploitation and the dead ends of forgiveness

13-year-old Clo 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 Clo 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 Clo, 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.