Instant Buy The Pleasing Hour

A New York Times Notable Book The Pleasing Hour, the debut novel by Lily King, is a profoundly moving story of family, betrayal and the naivety of youth. Young, inexperienced and fleeing a terrible personal loss, Rosie travels to France to become an au pair to the Tivot family. Nicole, the cool, distant and beautifully polished mother of the three children she cares for is impossible to connect with – there is something about the woman that both fascinates and unnerves Rosie. The same is true of the rest of the Tivot clan. Nicole’s husband, Marc, and their children all seem to be caught in an unending struggle against each other for love and acceptance. Only when Rosie is sent to care for Nicole’s now-elderly guardian – the storyteller of the family’s secrets – does she finally discover the truth. There, Rosie will learn of a past darkened by war, duplicity and a tragedy that still resonates in the Tivot’s lives.

Lily King is the author of the novels The Pleasing Hour, The English Teacher, Father of the Rain, Writers \\u0026 Lovers and Euphoria, which is inspired by the life of revolutionary anthropologist Margaret Mead. King is the recipient of a Whiting Writers’ Award and has twice won both the Maine Fiction Award and the New England Book Award. She lives with her husband and children in Maine.