Used book – *The Colour of Water*, Kerry Hudson, translated by Florence Lévy-Paoloni

Charmed, Dave, a security guard in a luxurious London department store, lets a young shoplifter go. At the end of his shift, he finds her outside, waiting for him. This marks the beginning of a complex relationship between two damaged individuals. How did Alena, who arrived with so many plans from her native Russia, end up homeless and without papers? Why does Dave live as if in exile just a few miles from his home? What could they both have gone through to be so disillusioned so early in life? Page after page, they tame each other, grow closer – and carefully avoid their shadows: the prostitution networks, compromises, fears and stifled hopes of one, the grim English estates on the horizon, the dreams of adventure and cowardice of the other.