Review: The Perfect Nanny

The Perfect Nanny

Author: Leila Slimani

Publication Date: January 9th 2018

Publisher: Penguin Books; Translation edition

Myriam and Paul Massés live in a small apartment in Paris's tenth arrondissement with their young daughter Mila and baby Adam. Shortly after having her second child, Myriam realises the life of a stay-at-home mother is not for her. When the opportunity to join an old friend's law firm presents itself, she jumps at the chance to pursue her dreams of becoming a brilliant lawyer. With both parents working it becomes necessary to find someone to look after the children, so they begin interviewing for a nanny. The fastidious Louise is exactly what they are looking for and she quickly becomes indispensable to the family. 

The opening chapter is jarring in its brutality, as the ending is presented at the beginning of the book. The author then proceeds to tell of the events that led the characters to this point, bringing the story full circle to its startling conclusion. The relationship between the central personalities is oddly claustrophobic and builds effective suspense toward the denouement. I did find some parts of the story to be slightly underwhelming, but overall The Perfect Nanny is an engrossing, sinister, little novel.

From the publisher:

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.

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.

The #1 international bestseller and winner of France’s most prestigious literary prize, the Goncourt