Interview Leïla Slimani


Feature Leila Slimani


“The baby is dead. It took only a few seconds. The doctor said he didn’t


suffer. The broken body, surrounded by toys, was put inside a grey bag, which


they zipped shut. The little girl was still alive when the ambulance arrived.”


T Text Alice O’Keeffe 34


he opening lines from Leïla Slimani’s Lullaby are the most shocking I have read


for a very long time—if not ever. The novel moves back in time to reveal the events that led to the murder of two tiny children. Lullaby is the story of a middle-class couple, French-Moroccan lawyer Myriam and her husband, Paul, who live in Paris’ chic 10th arrondissement


with their two young children, Mila and Adam. When Myriam decides to return to work aſter having children, the couple look for a nanny. Of the women who respond to Myriam’s advert and show up for an interview, Louise stands out immediately. She is a quiet, self-contained woman of indeterminate age—although she does have a grown-up daughter—with smooth features and an open smile. Myriam and Paul are charmed. Things go well at first: Louise seems devoted to the children but


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