No Touching - Ketty Rouf

Genre: Literary Fiction

Release Date: Expected 12th August 2021

Publisher: Europa Editions

Translated from French by Tina Kover

No Touching is a re-release of 'On ne touche pas', originally released in French in 2020 and winner of prix du premier roman 2020, or the Premier Novel Awards.

Following Josephine, a philosophy teacher in the suburbs of Paris. Her daily life is a tedious, never-ending repetition of working and anxiety medication, and ocassionaly reading erotic novels to break the monotony. But at night, she becomes Rose Lee, a glamourous, desired dancer that breaks the grey of her daily life and fills it with colour.

But living a lie is a dangerous game, and soon Josephine realises she's going to have to make a decision between her stable, safe career and her passion before it all slips from her fingertips.

"You have to cling to something and what better to cling to than yourself?"

No Touching is a story about self-love, freedom, pleasure and passion, about the way women are taught to look at themselves and how they're seen through everyone elses eyes.

The writing was beautiful - the harsh juxtaposition of the dreariness of her daily life to the explosion of colour and life she feels as she learns to own her happiness and sexuality was crafted masterfully. The world building was otherworldly in a way, making everything seem just slightly magical in a very boring world. At times I felt the prose was somewhat stiff and kept me slightly at an arms length from Josephine and her journey, but I was still able to connect with her as a character on a personal level.

This was a story about the journey itself - I had guessed early on where the road would take Josephine but watching her as she learned and grew was a pleasure to read.

RATING: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Thank you to Ketty Rouf, Europa Editions and Netgalley for this ARC in return for an honest review.

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