The Caretakers

In the smart Parisian suburb of Maisons-Larue, in the wake of the Paris 2015 terrorist attacks, an au pair is arrested after the sudden and suspicious death of her nine-year-old charge... The truth behind what happened is unravelled through six women: Geraldine, a heartbroken French teacher who struggles to connect with her vulnerable students; Lou, a wildly incompetent au pair whose host family fires her in the middle of the night; Charlotte, a French mother determined to rise above her born social class whatever the cost to her relationship with her three children; Holly, an anxious au pair who yearns to feel at home in Paris; Nathalie, an isolated French teenager desperate for a mother; and finally, Alena, the au pair accused of killing a child. All of them play a part in nine-year-old Julien's death. For fans of Celeste Ng's Everything I Never Told You and Leila Slimani's Lullaby, The Caretakers is a compulsive and gripping debut about who takes care of children, the yearning for belonging that extends beyond the homes left behind, and issues of identity, privilege, and class in both American and French culture.