Au Pair by Fiona McGregor

In her search for solitude and a
space to recreate herself away from the claustrophobic loving of her large Sydney family, a 21-year-old woman embraces the anonymous pleasures of  a foreign language and city. In doing so she launches herself into the madness of a wealthy Parisian household
- and while she expects to be treated as an equal, she comes to realise she is little more than a servant.

In this, her first novel, Fiona 
McGregor has given us a funny and occasionally painful account of the search for identity and the pressures of family and place which shape us.

"An exhilarating comedy of manners which captures the idiosyncrasies of Parisian family life as acutely as Jacques Tati's Mon Oncle."
                                         Jill Kitson

"The fists of a 
little boy are sharp.
The fists of Laurent
were full of hatred.

You are a fool!
He thrashed the gun
in front of my face.

I escaped to the hall.
I tried to go up the
stairs but Laurent
wrapped himself
around my leg.

GEEV ME MY
MUNITION, I WON
SAY PLEASE! GEEV 
IT TO ME!

Stop fighting,
Laurent! Please!

I sounded pathetic.
I managed to drag
myself up the stairs,
the boy manacled
around my ankles."