Nanny Nanny

In the midst of so many literary reconsiderations of motherhood, this book announces itself as an essential left-field addition to the contemporary canon — a story of a career nanny, a professional mother substitute, yearning for a child as a way to undo and reconfigure the physical and emotional violence of an ex-girlfriend; unraveling, too, the way her self-formation as a mother-in-absence, a body to be depleted and taken for granted, dovetailed with her experience of domestic abuse. K Chiucarello is a thrilling, forthright, sensual, deeply perceptive writer; NANNY NANNY comes at you like an incendiary secret, a sweet and dangerous flame kindled in the dark.

Jia Tolentino, New York Times bestselling author of Trick Mirror

A deftly crafted, blazing page turner about honest, hard work, and the many occupational hazards of affection. An unforgettable voice.

Bud Smith, author of Mighty

What a surprising, perceptive novel Nanny Nanny is, stitching together violence and care at every turn, and always insisting on tenderness.

Aysegül Savas, author of The Anthropologists

Nanny Nanny is absolutely stunning. Exquisitely crafted, with visceral intensity throughout. I loved it.

Elliot Page

This book is astounding. At once brutal and loving, fast-paced and strikingly attentive, Nanny Nanny is for anyone who has felt the break of one life and started again... K Chiucarello has given us a wholly original motherhood novel, expansive and bold, and inclusive of the many beloved caregivers of children. With intelligence, patience, and forgiveness, we are whipped through the times and places, the generations and lovers, the mistakes and the narrow escapes that build a mother. Nanny Nanny offers an urgent new window on beginnings, one that I can never forget.

Eliana Ramage, author of To the Moon and Back