Soft Flesh

When Lucie Thirache arrives at Number 7, Rue Pépin, she’s given a new identity — “Nina” — and told to smile. Behind the velvet curtains and polished mirrors of Madame Donard’s house, men come to buy pleasure, and women learn to survive it. But Lucie wants more than survival.

In 'Soft Flesh', Paul Adam delivers a searing, intimate portrait of a young woman navigating the brutal realities of institutionalized prostitution in 19th-century France. Through sharp detail and emotional nuance, we follow Lucie’s descent into a world of powdered faces, false names, rivalries, and fragile dreams — a world where softness is both a currency and a curse.

At once sensual and unsparing, this novel is a bold critique of societal hypocrisy, the commodification of women’s bodies, and the thin line between desire and despair.