Dominique Manotti

French novelist Dominique Manotti teaches nineteenth-century Economic History. Her first novel, Rough Trade is a gripping late-twentieth century morality tale set in the seedy underside of Paris. It was awarded the top prize for the best thriller of the year by the French Crime Writers Association. Her other books include Cop and To Our Horses!

''The novel I liked most this year. Set in Le Sentier, the district of Paris where expensive clothes are made in sweatshops, it uses real events - the struggle by foreign workers in 1980 to get legal status - as the setting for an extraordinary vivid crime novel,'' Joan Smith, Books of the Year, Independent.

www.arcadiabooks.co.uk