The Au Pair

A New York Times Novel Everyone Will Be Talking About This Year 'Is anything more dangerous than a fragile male ego?' New York Times 'Nerve-wrackingly fun' Vogue, Best Books of the Year So Far Steven Hammer was once a literary star. Now, his career is floundering, his marriage to high-powered banker Lucy is crumbling, and the only bright spot in his life is Astrid, the Norwegian au pair who cares for their children – and reveres his neglected novels. But what begins as a secret infatuation soon spirals into a scandal that makes them both infamous. As a headline-grabbing trial captivates the world with a salacious story of sex, power, and betrayal, Steven must confront the wreckage he’s created – and the deeper insecurities that fuelled it. Is Astrid an innocent young woman caught up in a case beyond her control, or a calculating femme fatale? And how far will he go, driven by desperation and obsession, for her professed love? With propulsive momentum, sharp wit and sly, lucid prose, The Au Pair is a sleek literary thriller about failure, desire, and the unravelling of a man as he grapples with his fading relevance – when the lies others spin pale beside the fictions we tell ourselves. Perfect for fans of The Truth about the Harry Quebert Affair and Fleishman is in Trouble * * * * Praise for The Au Pair: 'Wayne, perhaps no surprise, is an expert guide into the complex psyche of an author. He is also a deft social satirist, no more than when skewering his characters' politically correct pretensions' Wall Street Journal ‘The Au Pair is Teddy Wayne at his immensely readable best. The plot ratchets up in the creepiest, most chilling way while deliciously skewering the Brooklyn literary set. It’s a book you’ll tear through, one that leaves you guessing until the last page’ Maria Semple, author of Go Gentle ‘A scandalous thriller, we read it in one sitting’ Heat ‘This compulsive thriller gleefully and skilfully skewers both stereotypical tropes and the contemporary publish