This is part of my Summer Reads series where I’ll be sharing book recommendations – a series of “not just cookbooks”.
This week’s Summer Reads pick – The Caretakers: A Novel by Amanda Bestor-Siegal – comes directly from the American Library in Paris 2022 Book Awards Short List – received in my inbox on Friday. I already had a book review scheduled for this week but, looking through the book descriptions in that list, I was hooked by the description of The Caretakers (“a thriller set in a posh Parisian suburb”). Sounded like just the ticket for a weekend where afternoons would be spent indoors as France suffers through yet another “canicule” period (heatwave – we’re on Day 7 of scorching temperatures with wildfires raging in the South West).
From the publisher:
Paris, 2015. A crowd gathers outside the Chauvet home in the affluent suburban community of Maisons-Larue, watching as the family’s American au pair is led away in handcuffs after the sudden death of her young charge. The grieving mother believes the caretaker is to blame, and the neighborhood is thrown into chaos, unsure who is at fault—the enigmatic, young foreigner or the mother herself, who has never seemed an active participant in the lives of her children.
The truth lies with six women: Géraldine, a heartbroken French teacher struggling to support her vulnerable young students; Lou, an incompetent au pair who was recently fired by the family next door; Charlotte, a chilly socialite and reluctant mother; Nathalie, an isolated French teenager desperate for her mother’s attention; Holly, a socially anxious au pair yearning to belong in her adopted country; and finally, Alena, the one accused of the crime, who has gone to great lengths to avoid emotional connection, and now finds herself caught in the turbulent power dynamics of her host family’s household.
Set during the weeks leading up to the event, The Caretakers is a poignant and suspenseful drama featuring complicated women. It’s a sensitive exploration of the weight of secrets, the pressures of country, community, and family—and miscommunications and misunderstandings that can have fatal consequences.
(I did, in fact, read this in the space of 24 hours, it was such a good read and such a perfect read for the summer I bumped this week’s review in favour of this!)
Maybe because I lived in Europe when I was a similar age to the girls in the story (not as an au pair) there was a lot of this story I related to. The feelings of hope, arriving in a new country with hopes and dreams. The frustration of dealing with life in a foreign language and all the cultural faux-pas committed. The feelings of homesickness but not wanting to leave. The challenge of living in a foreign country but still not wanting to leave. So much of what the au pairs in the story go through, I related to as well.
Though the book is told through the eyes of different characters and different time periods, it’s easy to follow and flows well. The characters are well-developed with well-explained back stories, and you really got a deep sense of the events of the story and how each character was impacted, rather than the main focus being on the au pair accused of murder. The events of the story are set in 2015 and 2016, so very recent and in the aftermath of the November 2015 terrorist attacks. The storyline can sometimes feel like it’s moving a little slowly but eventually, all the pieces fit together and you’ll understand the “present” events so much more for the information shared about the (sometimes) years leading to present-day events.
If you’ve lived in Paris, you’ll identify with a lot of the cultural and language references. If you’ve been an au pair (or wanted to be one, or even very clearly DIDN’T ever want to be one – ahem… that’d be me!), you’ll find this peek into their lives fascinating. If you love a good mystery, you’ll devour this book in one or two sittings, like I did.
Highly recommended.
Buy The Caretakers on Amazon (this affiliate link should bring you to the Amazon store in, or closest to, your country). For free worldwide shipping, buy or pre-order from The Book Depository.
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