Leyla Slimani

Leïla Slimani is a Franco-Moroccan writer and journalist.

Leïla Slimani was born on 3 October 1981 in Rabat, the capital of Morocco, to a French mother of Algerian origin and a Moroccan father. In 1999, after graduating from the French Lycée Descartes in Rabat, Leïla moved to Paris and earned a degree from the Paris Institute of Political Studies (Sciences Po). At that time, she also tried her hand at acting at the Cours Florent drama school (Cours Florent). Leïla continued her education at the HEC Paris business school, which opened the door to the world of journalism. Since 2008, Leïla Slimani has worked for the magazine Jeune Afrique. From 2012 onward, she decided to devote herself to literature while continuing to write a column on North Africa.

In 2014, Leïla Slimani published her first novel, Dans le jardin de l'ogre ("In the Garden of the Ogre"), with Gallimard. The book’s subject matter (nymphomania, female sexual dependence) and the author’s style were noted by critics, and the novel was among the five finalists for the 2014 Prix de Flore and received the Mamounia Prize in Morocco. The idea for the book came to her in 2011, when the author was breastfeeding her child while watching television coverage of the sexual scandal surrounding Dominique Strauss-Kahn.

Leïla’s second novel, Chanson douce / "The Perfect Nanny" (Gallimard, 2016), was awarded the 2016 Prix Goncourt. In this work, the author depicts the everyday life of a young couple and their secretive nanny. The novel was inspired by a real-life tragedy that occurred in New York in 2012.