"This sharp, compelling legal drama from an acclaimed French journalist explores why a teenage victim lied about her rape and how the disadvantaged become scapegoats. At 15, Lisa was a typical teenager, at times rebellious and impulsive, adjusting to newfound attention from boys and men. But when her demeanor takes a sudden turn, her teachers suspect something worse than adolescent moodiness. Lisa eventually confesses that she's been abused, multiple...

When August, an anthropologist who has studied the funeral traditions of different cultures, revisits her old neighborhood after her father's death, her reunion with a brother and a chance encounter with an old friend bring back a flood of childhood memories. Flashbacks depict the isolation she felt moving from rural Tennessee to New York and show how her later years were influenced by the black power movement, nearby street violence, her father's...