Chambermaid
A Novel
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- 75,00 kr
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- 75,00 kr
Publisher Description
An honorable, aspiring attorney's dream job becomes a dishonorable nightmare in this "funny and charming" debut (Gary Shteyngart, author of Lake Success).
Sheila Raj is a recent graduate of Columbia Law School with high aspirations of working for the ACLU. When she lands a coveted year-long federal clerkship with legal goddess Judge Helga Friedman, she cannot help but think that her life is destined for jurisprudential greatness. But law school did not prepare Sheila for the sociopath who greets her on her first day, and pushes her to the brink of resignation. It's only when she's assigned to a high-profile death penalty case that Sheila realizes that to survive the year as Friedman's chambermaid—not just her sanity, but actual lives will hang in the balance. Because Prada be damned, "the devil really wears a black robe" (Jill Kargman, author of Momzillas).
"In the world of the federal judiciary, where judges are sacrosanct and impervious to criticism, Saira Rao's deliciously controversial debut novel ranks with mooning the Supreme Court" (The Philadelphia Inquirer). Delivering an outrageous peek into hallowed halls, the "laugh out loud . . . Chambermaid is sure to strike a familiar chord for anyone who's ever had a jerk for a boss" (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette).
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Here is the legal system exposed and skewered for what it is: haplessly human. Columbia Law School grad Sheila Raj accepts a clerkship from Judge Helga Friedman of the federal court of appeals in Philadelphia, and the world appears to be at her feet. The terrain inside the courthouse turns to quicksand, however, as Sheila discovers Friedman is a "sociopathic, homicidal, bipolar jurist" who screams at, mocks and otherwise tortures her clerks. Yet Sheila and co-clerks Matthew and Evan must suffer in silence, since the world universally views Judge Friedman as a champion of liberalism. "During her tenure, Friedman had nailed cops for racial profiling, overturned a law banning pornography on First Amendment grounds, and nine out of ten times thought company executives were sexually harassing pricks. If she weren't a tyrant who racially profiled her law clerks, she'd be worth idolizing," Sheila laments. This judicial nut job winds up the crucial member of a panel hearing a death penalty appeal that pits her against a rival judge with a dirty little secret that Sheila helps reveal. While Rao's wit shines in her debut, the former TV producer and federal appeals court clerk plays most of the characters for slapstick, which generates more smirks than laughs.
