Description: In this rich and subtle novel, Stella Benson answers a classified ad for an au pair and arrives in a tiny Sussex village that's home to an unusual family.
Brief description: Rachel Cusk is the author of the Outline trilogy, the memoirs A Life's Work and Aftermath, and several other works of fiction and nonfiction. She is a Guggenheim fellow. She lives in Paris.
Review Quotes:
"A sophisticated confection . . . For this delightful novel about the governess from hell, maybe only the word 'wicked' will do." --The New York Times Book Review
"A brilliant oxymoron--a serious farce so subtle that its command of the reader must called insidious . . . Bright, candid, and modestly humorous, Stella Benson lures us into complicity . . . Cusk's ability to keep us interested in innumerable human collisions is uncanny. We may finally learn Stella's secrets, but she remains as fascinatingly indecipherable as anyone we know." --The New Yorker "Enchanting . . . A funny, modern Jane Eyre combined with an Anne Tyler-esque tale about escaping from the pressures of an unhappy urban life." --Newsday "An oddly ingratiating social comedy . . . Smart, literate, offbeat, confiding . . . A pleasure." --The Boston Globe "Hilarious . . . Stella is strange because strangeness is part of the human condition; she's just a little more aware of it than most people." --Village Voice Literary Supplement "Smart, charming, and often outright hilarious." --Entertainment Weekly