A nameless young woman announces the train schedule at the Gare du Nord in Paris. The object of her desire lives with another woman, an ‘angel’. She is persuaded to assist a transvestite in his show, running on stage, desperately sobbing. She accepts a stranger’s invitation to have coffee, which leads to her being locked in his drug den. She tells a dinner party of acquaintances that she is a prostitute, even going so far as to meet up with one of the men the next night. What is she doing, and where is she headed?

Voice Over received a rapturous endorsement from Paul Auster, with Auster hailing Curiol as a major new literary talent. This slim novel is a breathless read, as our Parisian protagonist breezes through a catalogue of disparate moments. Strangely abstract and yet satisfyingly whole, this is one to savour slowly.