The Pleasing Hour [Paperback]

Lily King’s highly acclaimed, award-winning debut novel is the story of Rosie, an American au pair in Paris whose coming of age defies all our usual conceptions of naïveté and experience. Rosie is fleeing an unspeakable loss that has left her homesick for her family. As she awkwardly grasps for the words to communicate with and connect to Nicole, the cool, distant, and beautifully polished mother of the three children she cares for, Rosie’s bond with the patriarch of the household develops almost too naturally. When Lola, the middle child, begins to suspect an indecent intimacy between Rosie and her father, Rosie moves to the south of France to care for Nicole’s elderly guardian, the storyteller of the family’s secrets. There, she discovers a past darkened by war and duplicity, and finally comes to understand the tragedy behind Nicole’s elusive demeanor.

“Lily King’s splendid new novel consists of one beginning after another, all so assured that it’s hard to believe the book itself is her debut” —The New York Times Book Review

“Delightful . . . [This] remarkably well-written book . . . introduces a very talented writer of great promise.”—The Washington Post Book World

“Written with quiet, lyric forcefulness . . . An impressive debut from a writer who knows how to uncover the saving impulses of the heart.”—Elle

“A rich first novel about families lost and found from a promising writer with an ear for language from the heart, that touches deeply.”—The Christian Science Monitor

“King can brushes lush descriptions, with majestic colors and vivid, fleeting pleasures.” —The Seattle Times

“Beautifully wrought . . . What people do to each other and the legacies they leave are King’s central subjects, and in her deft hands they’re explored in coml#O