Lisa Harding is a writer, actress, playwright. She received an MPhil in creative writing from Trinity College Dublin in 2014. Her short stories have been published in the Dublin Review, the Bath Short Story Anthology, HeadStuff, and Winter Papers. Her first novel, Harvesting, won the 2018 Kate O'Brien Award and was shortlisted for an Irish Book Award and the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year Award.
Harding's new novel is Bright Burning Things.
At Lit Hub the author tagged six favorite books featuring conflicted, contrary, and contradictory characters, including:
Leïla Slimani, Lullaby [US title: The Perfect Nanny]Read about the other entries on the list.
Inspired by the true story of a homicidal nanny, this slim novel is a deeply unsettling read that provides no easy answers for its protagonist’s actions.Louise, a middle-aged widow with an estranged adult daughter, is hired by a busy, stressed, professional couple to care for their young children. Initially, the situation is picture-perfect: the new nanny seems like the embodiment of Mary Poppins, with her creative games and sense of play. She is a perfect housekeeper, cook and keeper of order. As she begins to see possibilities beyond her constricted life, the pathology underlying her perfectionism begins to emerge. The near-omniscient point of view darts in and out of the consciousness of many characters, meaning that the motivation is never clear. Maddening, horrific and memorable.
The Perfect Nanny is among Elle Marr's five great diverse crime novels.
--Marshal Zeringue
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