The Little Girl on the Ice Floe

A powerful and personal account of the devastating consequences of childhood rape: a valuable voice for the #MeToo conversation

She is a pretty, blonde child, from a perfectly bourgeois background. She lives in the 16th arrondissement, a wealthy and quiet neighbourhood of Paris. She is loved by her parents and siblings, spends weekends and holidays in the countryside, loves school, has lots of friends.

And then, one sunny day, when she is nine years old, a strange man follows her as she walks the short distance home. He follows her down the street, through the door into her building, up the stairs, and everything changes forever.

Her parents do everything doting parents should to help their daughter. But then silence falls. A veil is drawn over that part of her childhood, and life is supposed to go on.

Except, of course, it doesn't.