Hospital. Post office. Swimming pool. Next stop: Europe, a housing development on the outskirts of Châtellerault, France. Most of Zohra’s life takes place here: between her apartment, the kebab shop and family visits to Europe, the hospital and the pool. It is summer, the streets are empty, half of France is on holiday. The tarmac is baking hot in the sun and the pool doesn’t only have a cooling effect. The long-planned trip to Algeria and her husband Hocine’s visa must wait when Zohra’s residence permit is not renewed and she loses her job and her apartment. The perspective changes while she tries to return to the previous normality and shed her sudden invisibility. Struggling to keep her place in Europe she becomes ghostly transparent as she imagines future scenarios. (mch)