WINNER OF THE DEBUT NOVEL OF THE YEAR AT THE BRITISH BOOK AWARDS 2019 A SUNDAY TIMES TOP 100 NOVEL OF THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY
The baby is dead. It took only a few seconds.
When Myriam, a brilliant lawyer, decides to return to work, she and her husband look for a nanny for their two young children. They never dreamed they would find Louise: a quiet, polite and devoted woman who sings to their children, cleans the family's chic Paris apartment, stays late without complaint and hosts enviable birthday parties. But as the couple and their nanny become more and more dependent on each other, jealousy, resentment and suspicions increase, until Myriam and Paul's idyllic domesticity is shattered . . .
Review
The smartest thriller you'll read all year., Independent
Compulsively readable. I read it in one sitting., The Times
I defy you to read the disturbing opening sentences and not be compelled to read on., Stylist
A remarkable novel . . . dark, ambitious, disturbing and arresting., Scotland on Sunday
A taut and exquisitely written novel that will keep you up all night desperately turning the pages. This book is insanely good. -- Kate Hamer, author of The Girl in the Red Coat
Extremely gripping . . . An important book., Sunday Independent
From the opening scene . . . the book grabs you and does not let go., The Pool
An unnerving, addictive book., Grazia
An addictively tense domestic thriller., Red
About the Author
Leïla Slimani is the first Moroccan woman to win France's most prestigious literary prize, the Prix Goncourt. Her first novel, The Ogre's Garden - forthcoming from Faber & Faber in 2019 - won the Prix La Mamounia. Slimani is a journalist and frequent commentator on women's and human rights. She lives in Paris with her husband and two children.
Sam Taylor is the translator of HHhH by Laurent Binet and You Will Not Have my Hatred by Antoine Leiris.