Leïla Slimani is a novelist and journalist. She was awarded the Prix Goncourt in 2016 for her novel Chanson douce, soon appearing in English as The Perfect Nanny (Penguin Books). Her first novel, Dans le jardin de l’ogre, was given the La Mamounia Literary Prize. Slimani’s latest work, an essay on sexuality in Morocco entitled Sexe et mensonges, has been nominated for the Prix Renaudot.
About Chanson douce (Gallimard 2016, forthcoming Penguin Books)
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.
Proposed Talks
1. Women and Literature
2. Literature: A Space for Absolute Freedom
3. Writing about the Body and Sexuality
4. Sexuality in Morocco and the Maghreb: An Absolutely Central Question to Society
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