Review: LULLABY by Leïla Slimani

 

Lullaby by Leïla Slimani and translated by Sam Taylor
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

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...

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I really enjoyed this novel. It was recommended to me by thriller and crime-writer Sophie McKenzie as an example of a novel that begins with an omniscient narrator, and I just fell in love with the style.

We zoom in and out of characters' heads as we learn the story of an unreliable and murderous nanny. Ultimately, it's the plot of quite a lot of nanny thrillers--I can think of several others that follow this rough plot where the nanny is a danger to the kids--but the execution of this is phenomenal. The depth of characterisation is impressive.

And what really got me was how this novel is based on a specific real-life case too.

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