By: Leila Slimani
ISBN: 9780143132172
Publisher: Penguin
Publication Date: 1/9/2018
Format: Paperback
My Rating: 3 Stars “Is The Perfect Nanny the next Gone Girl? This author’s book on a killer nanny is next year’s must-read.” —The Telegraph The #1 international bestseller and winner of France’s most prestigious literary prize, the Goncourt—the first book by a Moroccan (and pregnant) woman to win. 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.
Advance Praise
“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
“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
“The why of this horrific crime remains unfathomable, rendering it all the more frightening.” —Kirkus Reviews
“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
“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
“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
About the Author
Leila 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, she was born in Rabat, Morocco, in 1981 and now lives in Paris with her French husband and their two young children. Read More
