Leïla Slimani: ‘Salman Rushdie’s books made me feel I could become a writer’
The Lullaby author on identifying with Jo in Little Women, being terrified of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, and why we’re still in debt to Steinbeck
May 2023
The Scent of Flowers at Night by Leïla Slimani review – a writer’s lot
The French-Moroccan author’s slightly precious meditation on literary creation is strongest when examining its limitations and reflecting on her own childhood
October 2022
‘It provoked an erotic shock in me’ – Marian Keyes, Nick Hornby, Leïla Slimani and other writers on the books that changed them
From Benjamin Zephaniah on Ain’t I a Woman to Elif Shafak on Orlando by Virginia Woolf – authors tell the story of the moment a book saved their life
August 2022
Leïla Slimani: ‘Attack on Salman Rushdie shows why we must not censor ourselves’
The bestselling author fears she too could be a target but says terrorists cannot be allowed to win
August 2021
The Country of Others by Leïla Slimani review – between Maroc and a hard place
A woman quits France for Morocco in 1946 but is soon adrift, in a novel overly indebted to its author’s family backstory
July 2021
Book of the week
The Country of Others by Leïla Slimani review – a compelling exploration of the past
Practically perfect? How a new kind of nanny novel nails parents’ angst and anger
Class, race, politics and power are at the heart of modern nanny novels that explore the complex relationship between working mothers and the women they pay to look after their children
April 2020
Europa28 review – female writers on Europe's future
Freedom is a recurring theme in an ambitious collection edited by Sophie Hughes and Sarah Cleave
March 2020
Europe has turned its back on the Mediterranean – but there is still hope
Growing up in the Maghreb, novelist Leïla Slimani remembers when the Mediterranean sea was not a border but the outline of a community, joining Africa to Europe
February 2020
‘Virginity is an obsession in Morocco’: an extract from Leïla Slimani’s Sex and Lies
Leïla Slimani: ‘This book is a mirror to make the elite look reality in the face’
January 2020
Lullaby review – bad-nanny thriller up past its bedtime
A young couple make a terrible childcare choice in this strained, unsatisfying drama based on Leïla Slimani’s bestselling novel
May 2019
Further reading
Broadening horizons: the best new fiction in translation
From a Japanese masterpiece to a gothic horror set in Baghdad … which novels to read following the Man Booker International prize
February 2019
The Guardian Books podcast
Leïla Slimani and Cat Person author Kristen Roupenian – books podcast
Adèle by Leïla Slimani review – sex-addiction thriller
'An insult': French writers outraged by festival's use of 'sub-English' words
Books that made me
Leïla Slimani: ‘I’ve always been fascinated by Marilyn Monroe'
January 2019
Book of the day
Adèle by Leïla Slimani review – a tough read, but a bracing one
