The Perfect Nanny: A Novel

Leila Slimani

Jan 2018 · Sold by Penguin

About this ebook

*Soon to be an HBO series starring Nicole Kidman and Maya Erskine*

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.

One of the 10 BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR of The New York Times Book Review, by the author of Adèle, Sex and Lies, In the Country of Others, and Watch Us Dance

“A great novel . . . Incredibly engaging and disturbing . . . Slimani has us in her thrall.” —Roxane Gay, New York Times bestselling author of Bad Feminist and Hunger

“One of the most important books of the year. You can’t unread it.” —Barrie Hardymon, NPR’s Weekend Edition

When Myriam decides to return to work as a lawyer after having children, she and her husband look for the perfect nanny for their son and daughter. They never dreamed they would find Louise: a quiet, polite, devoted woman who sings to the children, cleans the family’s chic Paris apartment, 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, motherhood, and madness—and the American debut of an immensely talented writer.

Ratings and reviews

Myriam and Paul are the parents of two small children. When Myriam decides to go back to work, a search begins for a nanny. Never did they think they would find anyone as perfect as Louise. She's young, she's quite efficient, and she has a way with the children. She cooks, she cleans, she goes over and beyond what her duties actually are. Myriam and Paul are delighted and can't believe how lucky they are. But there's something about Louise ... something that bothers the parents. She seems to resent the same family that she loves and wants to be a part of. Louise has a past ... and secrets. The children will pay. This is a chilling debut novel that loosely draws on a real story of a nanny from the Dominican Republic who was accused of killing two children under her care in 2012. Be warned ... the first chapter is somewhat graphic and emotional. I can't honestly say I liked either of the parents, they come across as rather self-absorbed. The children were young and sweet and so innocent. I started out suspicious of Louise .. she was just too good to be true. The story goes back into time every few chapters which shows the life Louise has lived. I have ambivalent feelings about the ending ... it was a bit abrupt and didn't really answer the questions I had. Many thanks to the author / Penguin Publishing / Edelweiss for the advance digital copy of this Psychological Thriller. Opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.

The ending was dissappointing. Wish she would explain more why she did, how she did and gave some shocking twists in the end.

I felt the story was disjointed. Did not flow, it didn't explain things. It ended abruptly.

About the author

Leila Slimani is the first Moroccan woman to win France’s most prestigious literary prize, the Goncourt, which she won for The Perfect Nanny. Her first novel, Adèle, about a sex-addicted woman in Paris, won the La Mamounia Prize for the best book by a Moroccan author written in French and gave rise to her nonfiction book Sex and Lies: True Stories of Women's Intimate Lives in the Arab World. A journalist and frequent commentator on women’s and human rights, Slimani is French president Emmanuel Macron’s personal representative for the promotion of the French language and culture and was ranked #2 on Vanity Fair France’s annual list of the Fifty Most Influential French People in the World. Born in Rabat, Morocco, in 1981, she now lives in Paris with her French husband and their two young children.