The Perfect Nanny

"One of the most important books of the year." -NPR's Weekend Edition "Extraordinary." -The New Yorker

"The first 'hot' novel of 2018." -The Washington Post every corner, delving into the complexities of marriage, friendship, and obsession." -Javier Ramirez, The Book Table

"A year ago, I picked up a book ... that I've thought about pretty much every day since... . [It] felt less like an entertainment, or even a work of art, than like a compulsion. I found it extraordinary... . If you are a mother, whatever kind of mother you aspire to be, you'll know what kind of mother you are after reading Slimani. If you are not a mother, the insights that she administers can be no less jolting... . Like Jenny Offill, Slimani can write ravishingly of female bodies, even postpartum ones... . The novelist Rachel Cusk has chronicled what motherhood did to her; Slimani examines what mothering is doing to society." -Lauren Collins, The New Yorker

"I think this might be one of the most important books of the year. You can't unread it... . If you've ever taken care of a kid, even if, just on a bus, someone has handed you a child for five seconds as they rummage through their purse, this will do something to you... . At the end of reading this book, I was so devastated, but I really felt like I was looking at the world through new eyes." -Barrie Hardymon, NPR's Weekend Edition

"[An] unnerving cautionary tale ... Pretty radical for a domestic thriller, but what's more remarkable about this unconventional novel is the author's intimate analysis of the special relationship between a mother and a nanny... . Slimani writes devastatingly perceptive character studies." -Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times Book Review

"Brilliantly observed ... Slimani is brilliantly insightful about the peculiar station nannies assume within the households of working families." -The Wall Street Journal

"This brutal chiller has the same compulsive readability as Emma Donoghue's Room." -The Guardian

"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