About the author

There’s a buzz around 32-year-old Kiley Reid, which started when 10 publishers bid for this, her debut novel, and exploded when film rights were snapped up before the book was even published. “I’ve always loved film, almost as much as novels, and I’m excited to see elements of this story that the film version can achieve that I potentially couldn’t on the page,” she tells The Weekly over coffee in Sydney. Kiley grew up in Arizona where her childhood was filled with “reading, writing, and an obsession with storytelling.” She is an award-winning short story writer and graduate of Iowa’s Writers’ Workshop.

This is Kiley Reid’s explosive start to an incisive study of human behaviour through the lens of institutionalised racism. Slowly we come to understand Emira’s psyche, that of tense neurotic rich mum Alix and the mysterious

Kelley, who only seems to have black friends and begins dating Emira.

Soon a dark coincidence throws another grenade into this world with devastating repercussions.

Kiley’s prose and dialogue is electrifying, but what pulls you in is the ambiguity of her situations.

The awkwardness in how you treat domestic “staff” is compounded when racism clouds the landscape. Privilege and prejudice are the bedrock for well-meaning but deeply flawed actions and what unfolds unpicks hypocrisies that are all too recognisable. The author called on her own experiences of nannying to inform her story. “I love exploring domestic, almost petty instances that bring history to the forefront,” she explains. “Racial discrimination isn’t something that ebbs and flows, rather, it evolves into a systemic level that is very hard to root out. As long as the same resources and decent standards of care are only available to the wealthy in the US, racism and classism will always exist.”

A thrilling new voice in literary fiction.