The Perfect Nanny: A Novel

Category: Book
By (author): Slimani, Leila
Subject:  FICTION / Contemporary Women
  FICTION / General
  FICTION / Literary
  FICTION / Thrillers / Psychological
Publisher: Penguin Books
Published: January 2018
Format: Book-paperback
Pages: 240
Size: 7.70in x 5.00in x 0.60in
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Additional Notes

From The Publisher*She has the keys to their apartment. She knows everything. She has embedded herself so deeply in their lives that it now seems impossible to remove her.
 
When Myriam, a French-Moroccan lawyer, decides to return to work after having children, she and her husband look for the perfect nanny for their two young children. They never dreamed they would find Louise: a quiet, polite, devoted woman who sings to the children, cleans the family's chic apartment in Paris's upscale tenth arrondissement, stays late without complaint, and hosts enviable kiddie parties. But as the couple and the nanny become more dependent on one another, jealousy, resentment, and suspicions mount, shattering the idyllic tableau. Building tension with every page, The Perfect Nanny is a compulsive, riveting, bravely observed exploration of power, class, race, domesticity, and motherhood-and the American debut of an immensely talented writer.

The #1 international bestseller and winner of France's most prestigious literary prize, the Goncourt
Review Quote*"A masterpiece: a brilliant exploration of the collision of race, gender, and class wrapped up in a gripping psychological thriller. I absolutely loved it-and read it in one sitting." -Amy Chua, New York Times bestselling author of Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother and Political Tribes

"A taut and exquisitely written novel that will keep you up all night desperately turning the pages. This book is insanely good." -Kate Hamer, bestselling author of The Girl in the Red Coat

"Terrifying and haunting . . . You won't read a smarter, more chilling book this year." -Mel McGrath, author of Give Me the Child

"A deeply disturbing, compulsive read that manages to make the monstrous pitiable, the inhuman humane." -Kiran Millwood Hargrave, author of The Cartographer's Daughter and The Girl of Ink and Stars

"Is The Perfect Nanny the next Gone Girl? This author's book on a killer nanny is next year's must-read. . . . As far as first pages go, this one slams you in the guts. . . . Anyone reading [it] can tell within a few paragraphs that its author is a mother . . . who has felt firsthand the perfect split of agony, ecstasy and mind-numbing boredom that motherhood entails." -The Telegraph

"The novel, which draws on elements from the real story of a nanny from the Dominican Republic who has been accused of killing two children under her care in New York in 2012, pieces together disparate events that culminate in a nightmarish outcome." -The New York Times

"A devastating, entrancing, literary psychological drama supported by absorbing character studies . . . Readers won't be able to look away." -Booklist 

"Expertly probes [a mother's] guilt at leaving her children with a stranger . . . Those seeking a thought-provoking character study will appreciate this gripping anatomy of a crime." -Publishers Weekly

"A darkly propulsive nail-biter overlain with a vivid and piercing study of class tensions." -Library Journal, "Top Ten Titles for Winter Reading"

"The why of this horrific crime remains unfathomable, rendering it all the more frightening." -Kirkus Reviews

"Tightly written . . . Slimani . . . cleverly drills down into the parent-nanny dynamic, one so often loaded with judgement and guilt, particularly for women." -Marie Claire (U.K.)

"A riveting exploration of power, jealousy and resentment." -The Bookseller, Editor's Choice

"Intense, but gripping. Beautifully lyrical and addictive." -Elle (U.K.)
Biographical NoteLeila Slimani is the first Moroccan (and pregnant) woman to win France's most prestigious literary prize, the Goncourt, which she won for The Perfect Nanny. A journalist and frequent commentator on women's and human rights, she is French president Emmanuel Macron's personal representative for the promotion of the French language and culture. Born in Rabat, Morocco, in 1981, she now lives in Paris with her French husband and their two young children.