The Au Pair - by Teddy Wayne (Hardcover)

About the Book

"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"-- Provided by publisher.

Book Synopsis

A NEW YORK TIMES NOVEL EVERYONE WILL BE TALKING ABOUT and NOVEL EVERYONE WILL BE READING THIS SUMMER

"Is anything more dangerous than a fragile male ego?" - The New York Times

"Nervewrackingly fun."--Vogue, Best Books of the Year So Far

A Boston Globe, Seattle Times, Town & Country, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Lit Hub, Men's Journal, and Zibby Books most-anticipated/summer books pick

Award-winning author Teddy Wayne follows 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 a 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 a sleek literary thriller about desire, deception, and the unraveling of a man as he grapples with his fading relevance--when the lies others spin pale beside the fictions we tell ourselves.

Review Quotes

A NEW YORK TIMES NOVEL EVERYONE WILL BE TALKING ABOUT and BOOK EVERYONE WILL BE READING THIS SUMMER - A PEOPLE, PARADE, TOWN & COUNTRY, THE BOSTON GLOBE, KIRKUS, AIR MAIL, AND THE SATURDAY EVENING POST BEST NEW BOOK - A LIT HUB, NEW YORK POST, JORDY'S BOOK CLUB, AND ZIBBY BOOKS MOST-ANTICIPATED BOOK - A SEATTLE TIMES SUMMER DEBUT - A ZOOMER MUST-READ BOOK - A CHICAGO TRIBUNE "COOLEST BOOK FOR THE HOTTEST MONTHS" - * A MEN'S JOURNAL "GREAT BEACH READS THAT ARE ACTUALLY AWESOME"

"This compulsive thriller gleefully and skillfully skewers both stereotypical tropes and the contemporary publishing landscape." - Boston Globe

"[A] tightly constructed, endlessly exhilarating thriller." - Town & Country

"A heart-pounding mystery that reads like a movie."

- People

"Wayne, perhaps no surprise, is an expert guide into the complex psyche of an author. He is also a deft social satirist, no more so than when skewering his characters' politically correct pretensions." - Wall Street Journal

"An ingenious dissection of marriage, masculinity, and privilege, propelled by a gimlet-eyed wit....A sly, unsettling hybrid of social satire and domestic thriller." - Kirkus Reviews (starred review and editor's pick)

"Wayne delivers a sharp domestic thriller...an intricate look at the perils of seeking admiration. Readers will be hard-pressed to put this down." - Publishers Weekly

"The reigning king of taut literary novels...Wayne knows how to write about men in a way that few modern writers are capable of pulling off...this is one you won't be able to put down." - Men's Journal

"I could not put it down. I raced through it." - Jennifer Weiner

"Teddy Wayne has written a book about selling out that doesn't--a guilty pleasure that earns its guilt. The Au Pair is a canny seduction wrapped in a page-turning thriller wrapped in an elegy for the literary novel: a threefold delight." - Ayad Akhtar, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Homeland Elegies and The Radiance

"You may think you know where it's going, this novel about a disappointed writer, his frosty wife, and a comely young nanny. You may be in for a surprise. Propulsive but also insightful--and funny, in its merciless skewering of midlife, marriage, and more--The Au Pair cements Teddy Wayne's status as a master of the wicked little literary thriller." - Rumaan Alam, New York Times bestselling author of Leave the World Behind and Entitlement

"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, New York Times bestselling author of Where'd You Go, Bernadette? and Go Gentle

"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

"Wayne is not upending noir so much as paying a sneaky contemporary homage. You'll toss it across the room in maddening disbelief, then quickly pick it up and keep reading." - Chicago Tribune

"A suspenseful mystery with both expected and unexpected plot twists. . . With his descriptive skill and insightful humor, Wayne elevates a potentially stereotypical setup into an examination of ego, professional disappointment, and self-delusion." - Library Journal

"A slow-burn, messy look at modern marriage...One can't look away." - Booklist

"Be prepared to finish Wayne's newest in one sitting...The Au Pair time and again refuses to become the novel we think we are reading. It is, instead, a cautionary commentary on our current American scene. It is about an America that doesn't really seem to exist anymore. For Teddy Wayne, the only place, perhaps, to come close to realizing the American Dream seems to be somewhere other than America." - The Anniston Star (AL)

"Subtly subversive, thoroughly enjoyable." - Air Mail