Synopses & Reviews
Set against the backdrop of the seedy districts of Paris, this mystery unfolds alongside actual events of a 1980s garment workers' struggle. In the neighborhood of Le Sentier, where sweatshops turn out the haute couture of the well-heeled, foreign workers keep inhuman hours under repressive management and the constant threat of police brutality. When a young, Thai worker is found dead in a factory and an erotic video club's membership is threatened with exposure, investigators are lead into the immigrant slums, the heroin trade, and a morally ambiguous world of informers, prostitutes, and laborers.
Synopsis
This fast-moving story takes the reader rapidly, in a single hectic month, along dark paths of sinister events in Le Sentier, the heart of Paris's rag trade. A complex morality tale of late-twentieth-century Paris that will grip you from beginning to end.
About the Author
Dominique Manotti teaches 19th century economic history in France.