*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. A Best Book of the Year : The New York Times Book Review The Boston Globe Real Simple Lit Hub Entertainment Weekly (honorable mention) Book of the Year, The British Book Awards ( Debut Fiction) Winner of the Prix Goncourt Finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Mystery/Thriller Finalist for the Edgar Award for Best Paperback Original “Mesmerizingly twisted.” — The New York Times Book Review, “The 10 Best Books of 2018” “This is no mere ripped-from-the-headlines airport paperback: The Perfect Nanny is a tough book about a grim subject, staring down the hard truth of this monstrous incident with clarity and conviction. Its power leaps out from the unforgettable opening sentence: ‘The baby is dead.’ No sentiment, no sensationalism: pure horror.” — The New York Times “Exquisite . . . In Slimani’s hands, the unthinkable becomes art. The Perfect Nanny won France’s most prestigious literary award. . . . One can see why the judges were wowed.” — Maureen Corrigan, NPR’s Fresh Air “I’ve thought about [it] pretty much every day. . . . [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 loved this book, I hated this book, this book changed me. . . . What The Perfect Nanny does so incredibly well is plumb the essential relationship between parents and nanny—and really, mother and nanny. . . . A chillingly clever horror novel about class and parenting.” — Barrie Hardymon, NPR’s Guide to 2018’s Great Reads “[A] slim dagger of a novel . . . You won’t move until you reach the last page.” — People “This book is a dazzling nightmare you don’t want to leave. I gasped at its final chapters, putting it down to breathe. Then I turned back to the start and immediately began rereading.” — Tiffany May, The New York Times Book Review “Deliciously twisty . . . An exquisitely crafted portrait of creeping madness and child murder . . . Slimani’s exploration of race and class is razor-sharp and brilliantly provides the fuel for a hair-raising tale of domestic horror.” — Entertainment Weekly, “The Ten Best New Thrillers to Read This Spring” “Remember The Nanny Diaries ? Well, this is like if someone brushed the pages of that book with arsenic.” — Harper’s Bazaar, “16 Thriller Books That Will Give You Instant Goosebumps” “The first ‘hot’ novel of 2018 . . . Unflinching . . . assured . . . The book aspires toward the taut elegance of that classic nanny nightmare tale, Henry James’s The Turn of the Screw, and, in language and complexity, it comes pretty darn close. . . . Talk about a guilty pleasure.” — The Washington Post “So twisted and creepy, but absolutely captivating.” — Lauren Christensen, The New York Times Book Review (podcast) “It’s excruciating, and almost more than anything that I could imagine—and therefore I read on.” — Pamela Paul, The New York Times Book Review (podcast) “Brilliantly observed . . . Slimani is brilliantly insightful about the peculiar station nannies assume within the households of working families.” — The Wall Street Journal “Dazzling