The next morning is the first of April. The recounting of the yard show's grand finale leaps from boulangerie to pharmacy to café: the Chauvets' au pair, a quiet, obedient American girl, was led out of the house in handcuffs. The police are opening a homicide investigation. Parents call their nannies and give them the day off, leave work early to go to the schools themselves, hug the precious, fragile bodies of their children who - confused, oblivious - conceal their delight by wriggling away. The working mothers blame the au pair. The child was her responsibility. The stay-at-home mothers blame Charlotte: this is what happens when you don't raise your own children. The other au pairs don't know whom to blame.

'Thrilling and deeply moving, gorgeously written and intricately plotted, morally complex and surprising and sweeping and intimate, with some of the most indelible and heart-breaking characters I have ever encountered in a novel' Elizabeth McCracken

'The Caretakers is a deep, enthralling pleasure, as wise as it is lovely. I read it voraciously, desperate to discover the fates of its unforgettable characters - but also with a deep regret that each page was bringing me closer to the end. I could have happily luxuriated in its words and world forever. It defies belief that this is a debut novel: it is magnificent' - Robin Wasserman, author of Girls on Fire and Mother Daughter Widow Wife