Rob Kidd reviews Lullaby by Leila Slimani. Published by Faber & Faber/Allen & Unwin.
"The baby is dead. It only took a few seconds.''
It is a fantastic opening; the punchline before the joke.
Within pages, Leila Slimani reveals the nanny has killed two children and tried to kill herself.
And then we rewind.
Hotshot lawyer Myriam has been shackled to her home raising children Adam and Mila, while husband Paul climbs the ladder of the music industry.
When Myriam bumps into a former friend who runs a law firm, her return to work is inevitable.
But the children must be considered.
Enter Louise, a doll-like, ageless nanny with an almost flawless CV and a fierce commitment to her job (the book was given the more blatant title The Perfect Nanny in the US).
While Slimani paints the picture of the cohesive family unit - parents fulfilled at work, children tended to by an expert carer - of course, we know catastrophe is coming.
Louise has elements of Rebecca De Mornay's character in the film The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, but unlike the movie villain she is not driven by revenge.
She unravels.
It happens slowly at first but the author gently coaxes Louise into collapse.
There is subtle foreshadowing of the future horror and the nanny's mental instability.
She plays hide and seek with the children, remaining concealed from their view until they are almost hysterical with panic.
And Louise's unusual past is also gradually revealed.
A loveless marriage, a wild runaway for a child, a life of servitude all take their toll.
She buries her problems in her work and becomes increasingly obsessive, while Myriam and Paul come to rely on her more and more as their careers boom.
Readers will no doubt complain the bloody scene at the outset of the novel does not quite get an ending to match, but that is where Slimani excels.
She knows what is wanted, what is predictable and deliberately avoids it.
It is frustrating at times but makes the book more poignant and the plot more unsettling.
Slimani's artful storytelling comes to the fore as Louise starts to clash with her employers. She is warned by Miriam not to give the children food past its best-before date, which contradicts the nanny's waste-not-want-not attitude.
Louise's response is beautifully portrayed and marks the beginning of the end - her mental breakdown almost complete.
Slimani is a huge deal in France, her debut novel picking up the country's premier literary award and the president offering her a national role in "culture''.
Lullaby was translated from French, which makes it a little stilted in places, but it will take more than that to stop her meteoric rise.
Rob Kidd is an ODT court reporter and books editor.
Win a copy
The Weekend Mix has three copies of Lullaby, by Leila Slimani, courtesy of Faber & Faber/Allen & Unwin, to give away. For your chance to win a copy, email playtime@odt.co.nz with your name and postal address in the body of the email and ‘‘Lullaby’ in the subject line, by Tuesday, March 27.
LAST WEEK’S WINNERS
Winners of the draw for copies of The Cage, by Lloyd Jones, courtesy of Penguin Random House, were: Pat Kerr, of Roxburgh, Daniel Knowles, of Dunedin, and Melissa Chambers, of Cromwell.
