The Au Pair A Novel

By: Teddy Wayne

Published by HarperCollins Publishers, 2026-03-31

Award-winning author Teddy Wayne follows the tremendous critical success of his breakout sensation The Winner--a New York Times Top Ten Thriller of the Year--with another seductively twisty page-turner about the explosive impact of a beautiful Norwegian au pair on a celebrated novelist and his wife.

Steven Hammer was once an acclaimed literary star. Now, his career is floundering, his marriage to a high-powered woman is crumbling, and the only bright spot in his life is Astrid, the Norwegian au pair who cares for their children--and reveres his neglected novels. But what begins as a secret infatuation soon spirals into a scandal that makes them both infamous.

As a headline-grabbing trial captivates the world with a salacious story of sex, power, and betrayal, Steven must confront the wreckage he's created--and the deeper insecurities that fueled it. Is Astrid an innocent young woman caught up in a case beyond her control, or a calculating femme fatale? And how far will he go, driven by desperation and obsession, for her professed love?

With breakneck pacing and dagger-sharp prose, Teddy Wayne's The Au Pair is an electrifying literary thriller about desire, deception, and the unraveling of a man as he grapples with his fading relevance--where nothing is as it seems, and the truth may be more fantastical than the lies we tell ourselves.