Leïla Slimani

(Morocco, 1981) is an internationally renowned French-Moroccan writer. She won the prestigious Prix Goncourt in 2016 for Lullaby (US title: The Perfect Nanny) and was the International Booker Prize jury president in 2023. In her work, Slimani writes about female sexuality and autonomy; she denounces the oppression of female sexuality and the double sexual morality towards women. She draws on her own family's story for her novel trilogy The Country of Others (part 1), Watch Us Dance (part 2) and J’emporterai le feu (part 3, to be published in English translation). Starting off in part 1 after WWII during Morocco’s struggle for independence with French-born Mathilde and her Moroccan husband finding themselves caught in the crossfire, part 2 takes place during the 1960s: on the cusp of adulthood, two biracial siblings search for their place in a newly independent Morocco brimming with both possibility and peril. Part 3 takes writer Mia after a COVID-infection to Morocco to explore her family history.