The number-one bestseller and winner of the Prix Goncourt - a compulsive, riveting and bravely observed exploration of power, class, race, domesticity and motherhood.

The baby is dead. It took only a few seconds.

When Myriam, a French-Moroccan lawyer, decides to return to work after having children, she and her husband look for the perfect caretaker 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 apartment in Paris's upscale tenth arrondissement, stays late without complaint and is able to host enviable birthday parties.

The couple and nanny become more dependent on each other. But as jealousy, resentment and suspicions increase, Myriam and Paul's idyllic tableau is shattered...

Author bio:
Leila 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.