Reeling

By Lola Lafon

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

13-year-old Cléo 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 Cléo 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 Cléo, 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.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Europa Editions
• Release date: Feb 10, 2022
• ISBN: 9781787703599

Lola Lafon

Lola Lafon is a writer and musician. Born in France, Lafon grew up in Sofia and Bucharest, and now lives in Paris. The Little Communist Who Never Smiled is Lafon's fourth novel; it has been translated into eleven languages and won ten literary prizes in France, including the Prix Ouest-France Etonnants Voyageurs, the Prix Jules Rimet and the Prix Version Femina.