The Au Pair
A Novel
-
- Pre-Order
-
- Expected 30 Jun 2026
-
- 549,00 Kč
-
- Pre-Order
-
- 549,00 Kč
Publisher Description
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.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Wayne (The Winner) delivers a sharp domestic thriller centered on former literary wunderkind Steven Hammer. After Steven's sophomore novel flops, he sleepwalks through teaching undergraduate fiction workshops and struggles to make progress on his third book. Meanwhile, the corporate paycheck of his ambitious wife, Lucy, sustains the couple and their two children—an arrangement that only deepens Steven's frustration and resentment. When the couple's elderly live-in nanny dies suddenly, Lucy suggests they find a replacement. Steven chooses Astrid, a 24-year-old aspiring novelist from Norway who bonds easily with the children and quickly becomes a source of validation for Steven. Her presence unsettles Lucy, however, whose high-pressure job and fraying patience widen the rift at home. Steven and Astrid try to resist their mutual attraction, but once Steven discovers Lucy is having an affair, they give in to temptation. The dalliance reignites both Steven's sexual desire and his creativity; with Astrid's encouragement, he begins a more personal writing project. Then a tragic accident during a family vacation shatters the fragile equilibrium and casts doubt on the motives of both women. Wayne spins his familiar premise into an intricate look at the perils of seeking admiration. Readers will be hard-pressed to put this down.
