The Au Pair - by Teddy Wayne (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

Award-winning author Teddy Wayne follows the tremendous critical success of his breakout sensation The Winner--a New York Times Top Ten Thriller of the Year--with another seductively twisty page-turner about the explosive impact of a beautiful Norwegian au pair on a celebrated novelist and his wife.

Steven Hammer was once an acclaimed literary star. Now, his career is floundering, his marriage to a high-powered woman 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 fueled 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 inexorable momentum and sly, lucid prose, Teddy Wayne's The Au Pair is an electrifying literary thriller about desire, deception, and the unraveling of a man as he grapples with his fading relevance--where nothing is as it seems, and the truth may be more fantastical than the lies we tell ourselves.

Review Quotes

"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

"I tore through The Au Pair in a single day, and lamented only that it wasn't twice as long. I hunger for literary thrillers with clean, lovely sentences that are also generous with the goods: narrative and erotic tension, plot twists, and a sly sense of humor about their characters. Teddy Wayne delivered, yet again, on all counts." -- Melissa Febos, bestselling author of Girlhood and The Dry Season