No Touching

In Ketty Rouf's debut novel, which won the Prix du Premier Roman 2020, readers follow Josephine, a high school philosophy teacher in Drancy, Paris, as she navigates the challenges of her mundane life filled with medication and bureaucratic absurdities. Her journey takes a transformative turn when she enters a strip club on the Champs-Elysée, uncovering a hidden world of camaraderie and newfound confidence through her secret nighttime existence. However, her delicate balance between these two lives is disrupted by an unexpected visitor, leading to a profound exploration of liberation and self-identity against societal norms.