This Literary Life
The narrator has no name. At least, not in the beginning. Her "old world" name is lost when an illness sets in that wipes out most of the population, leaving men greatly outnumbering women, and no babies anywhere.
Chloe wakes up in the hospital not knowing anything about her life besides what her family tells her: she was in a car accident and she's been asleep for a month.
The idea that you can simultaneously be too much and not enough is an undercurrent throughout the body of Baird's work: too much, when she wants to be open and honest about her sexuality and rape but not enough to fit in with the cool girls and "feminist bros" that, while personified in the academic experience.
26-year-old Anna is a former Parisian, former ballerina, and former woman with an identity outside of her eating disorder. Somewhere between following her husband to St. Louis and ending up in Bedroom 5 at 17 Swann Street, Anna's all but disappeared.
Grace, Lia, and Sky are sheltered from the horrors of the outside world. They've been brought up to believe that beyond the borders of their home there is nothing but violence: men against women, disease against bodies.
Sixteen years ago, Persephone O'Leary never came home. Now Sylvie must return to her hometown, stay in the room she shared with her sister, to help her mother. But Persphone's presence lingers on the streets of the quiet Connecticut village, in the empty bedroom Sylvie moves back into, and in the fact that her disappearance, and murder, remains unsolved.
Title: The Au PairAuthor: Emma RousGenre: SuspensePublisher: BerkelySource: eARC via NetGalleyLength: 320pPublishing Date: 08 January 2019 "But the witches took the real twins anyway." she'd whispered, wide-eyed. "And the fairies left you and Danny, sprite babies, as a swap. Is it true?" In the Norfolk countryside stands Summerbourne, an estate that sits on the edge of the sea. With [...]
