Who is Nikki D.? The nude poster child of capital-P Photography. A Lolita, perhaps, finally letting the predators off the hook. Or the teller of her own story, albeit under a new name: Christina Cross—the name she adopted when she flew across the world to start a new life in London. It isn’t until her past follows her there, decades later, that Christina finally decides to tell her story—or, at least, to give a trusted penman the permission to faithfully transcribe the truth of her much-observed childhood. To capture those endless summers at the Silverbanks naturalist colony in Golden Bay, New Zealand: the sunlit beaches, her first romantic encounters, the for-ever friendships that only some unknown darkness could put to the test. And then there’s Roland Salt—the world-class photographer who chased the summer around the globe, carrying little more than his camera and his unmatched ability to capture innocence: Nicola Davidson, or Nicky, better known, in print, as Nikki D. 

Carl Nixon’s latest novel sensitively but provocatively puts legitimized forms of exploitation under the microscope. Photographers of children. Talent scouts. Ghost writers of the stories of the victims of abuse. Can the real story be disentangled from the elaborations?