Start gifting
Libro.fm for Business
Start a membership, get two free audiobooks
Women in Translation
Get two free audiobooks AND support local bookstores
Make the switch
Send as gift
Add to Wish List
Almost ready!
In order to save audiobooks to your Wish List you must be signed in to your account.
Log in Create account
Limited-time offer
Get two free audiobooks when you make the switch!
Now’s a great time to shop indie. When you start a new membership supporting local bookstores with promo code SWITCH, we’ll give you two bonus audiobook credits at sign-up.
Make the switch
Gift audiobook credit bundles
You pick the number of credits, your recipient picks the audiobooks, and your local bookstore is supported by your purchase.
Start giftingNo Touching
Narrator
Alex Picard
This audiobook uses AI narration.
We’re taking steps to make sure AI narration is transparent.
Learn more
Translator
Tina Kover
Length
5 hours 59 minutes
Language
English
Prix du Premier Roman 2020
A story of liberation and a heartrending portrayal of a woman’s sense of self, Ketty Rouf’s extraordinary debut shatters tired prejudices about sex, women, and society.
Josephine teaches philosophy in a high school in Drancy, a suburb of Paris. Her life is a balancing act between Xanax, Propranolol and Tupperware lunches in the staff room. The directives of the National Education Board are increasingly absurd and intolerable and she follows them with playfulness at times and derision at others.
When, one evening, Josephine walks into a strip club on the Champs-Elysée, her life is completely overturned. There she learns a secret nocturnal code of conduct; she discovers camaraderie and the joys of female company; and she thrills at the sensation of men’s desire directed toward her. Josephine, a teacher by day, begins to lead a secret existence by night that ultimately allows her to regain control of her life. This delicate balance is shattered one evening by an unexpected visitor to the club where she dances.
Ketty Rouf has a master’s degree in philosophy, is a passionate ballet dancer, and after years working for the French National Education Board is now a full-time translator, interpreter, and writer. No Touching is her debut novel.
Tina Kover translations for Europa include Antoine Compagnon’s A Summer with Montaigne and Négar Djavadi’s Disoriental, which won both the Albertine Prize and the Lambda Literary Award, and was a finalist for the National Book Award for Translated Literature and the PEN Translation Prize.
Reviews
“Brimming with eroticism, Rouf's novel is a pitch-perfect rejection of the bland existence of educators in a broken system, and liberated her heroine to explore a more brilliant, colorful life, although not without its consequences.”—Booklist
“The direct and infectious prose convincingly delves into Joséphine’s inner life as she seeks self-reliance on her own terms. It’s a rich character study.”—Publishers Weekly
“Exhilarating and unsettling.”—Le Figaro
“A debut novel that skillfully dissects the relationship between the body and freedom.”—Franceinfo
“Stunning and surprising, No Touching invites readers to question their own choices and prejudices.”—ActuaLitté
“Both playful and profound.”—Le Journal du Dimanche
Expand reviews