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{{Short description|Franco-Moroccan writer (born 1981)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2021}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Leïla Slimani
| image = File:Leïla Slimani at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival 14.jpg
| caption = Leïla Slimani in 2025
| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1981|10|03|df=y}}
| birth_place = [[Rabat]], Morocco
| death_date =
| death_place =
| death_cause =
| other_names =
| known_for = ''[[Lullaby (Slimani novel)|Lullaby]]'' (novel)
| awards = [[Prix Goncourt]] (2016)
| education = {{hlist|[[Sciences Po]]|[[ESCP Europe]]}}
| employer =
| occupation = {{hlist|Author|journalist}}
| title =
| children = 2
| parents = [[Othman Slimani]] (father)<br>Béatrice-Najat Dhobb (mother)
}}

'''Leïla Slimani''' (born 3 October 1981)<ref name=schwartzbrod>{{cite news |first=Alexandra |last= Schwartzbrod |url=http://next.liberation.fr/livres/2014/09/29/leila-slimani-madame-bovary-x_1111174 |title=Leïla Slimani. "Madame Bovary X" |newspaper=Liberation |language=fr |date=29 September 2014 |access-date=3 April 2018}}</ref> is a [[Moroccans in France|French-Moroccan]] writer and journalist. She is also a French [[diplomat]] in her capacity as the personal representative of the French president [[Emmanuel Macron]] to the ''[[Organisation internationale de la Francophonie]]''.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=https://www.huffingtonpost.fr/2017/11/06/la-laureate-du-goncourt-2016-leila-slimani-devrait-etre-nommee-representante-de-macron-pour-la-francophonie_a_23267808/|title=La lauréate du Goncourt 2016 Leïla Slimani nommée représentante de Macron pour la francophonie
|first=Geoffroy|last= Clavel|date=6 November 2017|website=Le Huffington Post|language=fr|access-date=8 November 2019}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite web|url=https://www.institutfrancais.com/en/interview/leila-slimani|title=Leïla Slimani|website=Institut français|language=en|access-date=8 November 2019}}</ref> In 2016, she was awarded the [[Prix Goncourt]] for her novel ''[[Lullaby (Slimani novel)|Chanson douce]]''.

==Life==
Slimani's maternal grandmother Anne Dhobb ({{nee|Ruetsch}}; 1921{{ndash}}2016) grew up in [[Alsace]]. In 1944, she met her future husband Lakhdar Dhobb, a Moroccan colonel in the [[Troupes coloniales|French Colonial Army]], during the liberation of France. After the war she followed him back to Morocco, where they lived in [[Meknes]]. Anne Dhobb's autobiographical novel was published in 2003; she became the first writer in the family. Her daughter (Slimani's mother) is Béatrice-Najat Dhobb-Slimani, an [[otolaryngologist]], who married the French-educated Moroccan economist [[Othman Slimani]]. The couple had three daughters; Leïla Slimani is the middle one.

Leïla was born in [[Rabat]] on 3 October 1981; she grew up in a liberal, French-speaking household and attended French schools.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2016-11-03 |title=10 choses à savoir sur Leïla Slimani, prix Goncourt 2016 |url=https://bibliobs.nouvelobs.com/sur-le-sentier-des-prix/20161103.OBS0671/10-choses-a-savoir-sur-leila-slimani-prix-goncourt-2016.html |access-date=2024-04-28 |website=Bibliobs |language=fr}}</ref> An important rupture in Slimani's childhood occurred in 1993 when her father was falsely implicated in a finance scandal and fired from his position as president of the [[CIH Bank]] (he was later officially exonerated.<ref name="Collins" /><ref>{{cite news |first=Olivier|last= Brégeard |url=https://www.lalsace.fr/actualite/2017/02/12/leila-slimani-un-goncourt-alsacien |title=Leïla Slimani, un Goncourt alsacien |newspaper=L'Alsace |date=12 February 2017 |language=fr |access-date=3 April 2018}}</ref>).

Slimani left Morocco at the age of 17 for [[Paris]] to study [[political science]] and [[media studies]] at the [[Sciences Po]] and [[ESCP Europe]]. After her graduation, she temporarily considered a career as an actress, completing an acting course and appearing in supporting roles in two films.
On 24 April 2008 she married Antoine d’Engremont, a Parisian banker, whom she first met in 2005 and started to work as a journalist for the magazine ''[[Jeune Afrique]]'' in October of that year.
The work required much travel. After her son was born in 2011 and she was arrested in Tunisia while reporting on the [[Arab Spring]], she decided to quit her job at ''Jeune Afrique'' to pursue freelance work and write a novel instead. The novel, however, was rejected by publishers. In 2013, Slimani took a writing workshop by [[Jean-Marie Laclavetine]], a novelist and editor at [[Gallimard]]. He took an interest in Slimani's writing and helped her improve her style; in 2014, Slimani published her first novel ''Dans le jardin de l’ogre'' ("In the Garden of the Ogre" - in English translation, "Adèle") with Gallimard. The novel fared well with French critics and received the [[La Mamounia literary award]] in Morocco.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2015-09-23 |title=Leïla Slimani sacrée à La Mamounia |url=https://www.lefigaro.fr/livres/2015/09/23/03005-20150923ARTFIG00255-leila-slimani-sacree-a-la-mamounia.php |access-date=2024-04-28 |website=Le Figaro |language=fr}}</ref> Two years later she followed up with the psychological thriller ''Chanson douce'', which won the Prix Goncourt and turned her into a literary star in France, and made her known to international audiences as well. In 2017, her second child, a daughter, was born.<ref name="schwartzbrod" /><ref name="Collins" /><ref name="nyt">{{cite news |last1=Morenne|first1=Benoit|title=Leïla Slimani Wins Prix Goncourt, France's Top Literary Award |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/04/books/prix-goncourt-leila-slimani.html|newspaper=The New York Times|date=3 November 2016 |access-date=3 April 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url= https://www.france24.com/en/20150929-novel-leila-slimani-book-sex-addiction-prize-morocco |title=Dark novel on female sex addiction wins prize in Morocco |last=LeDuc |first=Sarah |newspaper=France 24 |date=29 September 2015 |access-date=3 April 2018}}</ref><ref name="Allardice">{{cite news |first=Lisa |last= Allardice |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/jan/26/leila-slimani-lullaby-interview |title=Leïla Slimani on her shocking bestseller, Lullaby: 'Who can really say they know their nanny? |newspaper=The Guardian|date=26 January 2018 |access-date=3 April 2018}}</ref>

In addition to her native Moroccan citizenship, Slimani also holds French citizenship due to her [[Alsace|Alsatian]] heritage.<ref name=Collins/><ref name=Allardice/> In 2017, she was made an [[Officier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres]] by the French government.<ref>{{Cite web |date=23 March 2017 |title=Nomination dans l'ordre des Arts et des Lettres hiver 2017 |url=https://www.culture.gouv.fr/Nous-connaitre/Organisation/Conseil-de-l-Ordre-des-Arts-et-des-Lettres/Arretes-de-Nominations-dans-l-ordre-des-Arts-et-des-Lettres/Nomination-dans-l-ordre-des-Arts-et-des-Lettres-hiver-2017 |access-date=8 November 2021 |website=www.culture.gouv.fr |language=fr}}</ref> Since 2021, she has been living in [[Lisbon, Portugal]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Leïla Slimani: "Contar histórias é a melhor forma de dizer a verdade" |url=https://expresso.pt/cultura/2021-05-20-Leila-Slimani-Contar-historias-e-a-melhor-forma-de-dizer-a-verdade-8ee9894b |access-date=2023-11-04 |website=Jornal Expresso |date=20 May 2021 |language=pt-PT}}</ref>

In August 2022, she was announced as the chair of judges for the [[International Booker Prize]] 2023.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Announcing the International Booker Prize 2023 judges |date=16 August 2022 |url=https://thebookerprizes.com/media-centre/press-releases/international-booker-prize-2023-judges-announced-and-submissions-now |access-date=10 March 2023}}</ref>

== Work ==
[[File:Leïla Slimani (21e Maghreb des Livres, Paris, 7 et 8 février 2015).jpg|thumb|Slimani in 2015]]

=== Politics ===
On 6 November 2017 the president of France, [[Emmanuel Macron]], appointed Leila Slimani his personal representative to the ''[[Organisation internationale de la Francophonie]]''.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" />

===Fiction===
====''Adèle''====
Slimani's first novel ''Dans le jardin de l’ogre'', published in English as ''Adèle'', tells the story of a woman who loses control of her life due to her [[sexual addiction]]. Slimani got the idea for her story after seeing the [[New York v. Strauss-Kahn|Dominique Strauss-Kahn]] unfolding news. The novel fared well with French critics; in Morocco it received the La Mamounia literary award.<ref>{{cite news |first=Boyd |last=Tonkin |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/le-la-slimani-s-dans-le-jardin-de-logre-eroticism-in-a-repressed-world-a6704646.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220614/https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/le-la-slimani-s-dans-le-jardin-de-logre-eroticism-in-a-repressed-world-a6704646.html |archive-date=14 June 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |title=Leïla Slimani's Dans le Jardin de l'Ogre: Eroticism in a repressed world |newspaper=The Independent |date=22 October 2015 |access-date=3 April 2018}}</ref><ref name=Collins/><ref>Young, Molly (23 January 2019), [https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/23/books/review/adele-leila-slimani.html "In ‘Adèle,’ a Young Woman Pounds Champagne, Spurns Hermès and Destroys Lives"], ''The New York Times''.</ref>

====''Lullaby/The Perfect Nanny''====
[[File:Leïla Slimani auf der Frankfurter Buchmesse 2017.jpg|thumb|right|Leïla Slimani in 2017]]
''[[Lullaby (Slimani novel)|Chanson douce]]'' (lit. "sweet song") is the story of a double murder of two young siblings by their [[nanny]], inspired by the [[Murder of Krim siblings|killing by a nanny of the Krim children in Manhattan in 2012]]. The novel starts off with the immediate aftermath of the murder with the opening line of "The baby is dead",<ref>{{Cite book |last=Tramuta |first=Lindsey |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aNaqDwAAQBAJ&dq=Ghada+Hatem-Gantzer&pg=PT193 |title=The New Parisienne: The Women & Ideas Shaping Paris |date=2020-07-07 |publisher=Abrams |isbn=978-1-68335-878-7 |language=en}}</ref> and then recounts the backstory of the parents, a liberal, upper middle class Parisian couple, as well as their nanny, who is economically and psychologically struggling. Slimani named the nanny Louise after [[Louise Woodward]], a British [[au pair]] in the US who was convicted of involuntary manslaughter of the toddler in her care. The novel was well received by French critics. It quickly turned into a bestseller, with over 76,000 copies printed within three months even before the book was awarded the [[Prix Goncourt]] in 2016. It subsequently became the most read book in France that year with over 450,000 copies printed; by the end of 2017 around 600,000 copies had been sold in France. It has been translated into 18 languages, with 17 more to come; the English translation (by Sam Taylor) of her novel was published in 2018 as ''The Perfect Nanny'' in the US and as ''Lullaby'' in the UK.<ref name=Collins>{{cite magazine|url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/01/01/the-killer-nanny-novel-that-conquered-france|title=The Killer-Nanny Novel That Conquered France|last=Collins|first=Lauren|date=1 January 2018 |magazine=[[The New Yorker]]|access-date=25 December 2017}}</ref><ref name=ElMasaiti>{{cite news |first=Amira |last=El Masaiti |url=https://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2017/02/207296/leila-slimanis-chanson-douce-is-most-read-of-2016-in-france/ |title=Leïla Slimani's Chanson Douce Is Most Read of 2016 in France |newspaper=Morocco World News |date=2 February 2017 |access-date=3 April 2018}}</ref> In 2019, ''Lullaby'' won a [[British Book Award]] in the "Début Book of the Year" category.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.thebookseller.com/british-book-awards/2019-debut-year|title=Fiction Début of the Year|website=The British Book Awards|date=2019|access-date=12 April 2021}}</ref>

====''Le pays des autres''====
{{Main|The Country of Others}}
''Le pays des autres'', lit. "The country of the others" (at Gallimard, 2020), a first novel in a trilogy about the writer's own family, deals with the life of Slimani's maternal grandparents during Morocco's period of decolonisation in the 1950s.<ref name="FnacPais">{{cite web |url= https://www.fnac.com/Le-pays-des-autres-de-Leila-Slimani-un-Maroc-amer/cp47791/w-4 |title= " Le pays des autres " de Leïla Slimani : un Maroc amer |publisher= Fnac |access-date=11 March 2020}}</ref> The second volume in the trilogy, ''Regardez-nous danser'' (lit. "Look at us dance"), was published in 2022, and the third, ''J'emporterai le feu'', in January 2025.

===Non-fiction===
Slimani worked for several years as a journalist reporting on Northern Africa and the Maghreb, covering, among other things, the [[Arab Spring]] in 2011.<ref name="Toxic"/>

Her book ''Sexe et Mensonges: La Vie Sexuelle au Maroc'' ("Sex and Lies: Sex Life in Morocco") compiles the accounts of many women she had interviewed while on a book tour throughout Morocco.<ref name="Toxic">{{cite news |first=Sylvie |last=Kaufmann |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/13/opinion/france-sex-islam-hypocrisy.html |title=A Toxic Mix: Sex, Religion and Hypocrisy |newspaper=The New York Times |date=13 September 2017 |access-date=3 April 2018}}</ref>

''La baie de Dakhla : itinérance enchantée entre mer et désert'' describes a region of Morocco on the Atlantic where people are going through a period of transition between traditional life and modernity.<ref name="FnacBaie">{{cite web |url= https://livre.fnac.com/a6763390/Leila-Slimani-La-baie-de-Dakhla-itinerance-enchantee-entre-mer-et-desert |title= ''La baie de Dakhla''...: Mot de l'éditeur |publisher= Fnac |access-date=11 March 2020}}</ref>

===Books===
*{{cite book|title=La baie de Dakhla : itinérance enchantée entre mer et désert|date=2013|publisher=Malika Editions|location=Casablanca|isbn=9789954037669|oclc=889653067}}
*{{cite book|title=Dans le jardin de l'ogre|date=2014|publisher=Éditions Gallimard|location=Paris|isbn=9782070146239|oclc=889705369}}
*:English edition: ''Adele: A Novel'', translated by Sam Taylor, Penguin, 2019 {{ISBN|978-0143132189}}
*{{cite book|title=Chanson douce|date=2016|publisher=Éditions Gallimard|location=Paris|isbn=9782070196678|oclc=957971440}}
*:US edition: {{cite book|title=The Perfect Nanny|date=2018|publisher=Penguin Random House|isbn=978-0-143-13217-2}}
*:UK edition: {{cite book|title=Lullaby|date=2018|publisher=Faber & Faber|isbn=978-0-571-33753-8|translator=Sam Taylor}}
*{{cite book|title=Le diable est dans les détails |publisher=Éditions de l'Aube |date=2016 |isbn=9782815921442 }}
*''Sexe et mensonges : La vie sexuelle au Maroc''. Les Arènes, Paris, 2017 {{ISBN|978-2-35204-568-7}}
*:UK edition: {{cite book|title=Sex and Lies|date=2020|publisher=Faber & Faber|isbn=9780571355037|translator=Sophie Lewis}}
*''Paroles d'honneur''. Les Arènes, Paris, 2017, {{ISBN|978-2-35204-654-7}}, illustrated by [[Laetitia Coryn]]
*''Le pays des autres''. Gallimard, March 2020, {{ISBN|2072887992}}, in French
*:UK edition: ''The country of others''. Translated by Sam Taylor. Faber & Faber. 2022. {{ISBN|978-0571361632}}
*:US edition: ''In the country of others''. Penguin Books. 2022. {{ISBN|978-0143135982}}
*''Regardez-nous danser''. Gallimard, February 2022, {{ISBN|9782072972553}}, in French
*:UK edition: ''Watch Us Dance''. Translated by Sam Taylor. Faber & Faber. 2024. {{ISBN|978-0571376087}}
*''J'emporterai le feu''. Gallimard, January 2025, {{ISBN|9782073098368}}, in French
*:UK edition: ''I'll Take the Fire''. Translated by Sam Taylor. Faber & Faber. 2026. {{ISBN|9780571395347}}
*''Assaut contre la frontière''. Gallimard, March 2026. {{ISBN|978-2073152930}}, in French

==References==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
{{commons category}}
*{{IMDb name|2489278}}
* [http://www.elle.fr/Loisirs/Livres/News/Leila-Slimani-rencontre-avec-la-romanciere-de-l-ultramoderne-solitude-des-femmes-3142603 ''Leïla Slimani : rencontre avec la romancière de l’ultramoderne solitude des femmes''] - Interview with Slimani (French)
*[https://www.npr.org/books/authors/577691534/leila-slimani ''NPR stories about Leila Slimani'']
*[https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09nrw2q ''Leila Slimani''] - BBC interview (audio, 9 mins)
*[https://www.literaturfestival.com/medien/texte/eroeffnungsreden/21.%20ilb%20speech%20leila%20slimani''Call for a Crime''] - Opening Speech of the 21st international literature festival berlin

{{Prix Goncourt}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Slimani, Leïla}}
[[Category:1981 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:21st-century French novelists]]
[[Category:21st-century Moroccan women writers]]
[[Category:Moroccan women novelists]]
[[Category:Moroccan novelists]]
[[Category:Writers from Rabat]]
[[Category:Prix Goncourt winners]]
[[Category:Sciences Po alumni]]
[[Category:Moroccan critics of religions]]
[[Category:Moroccan feminists]]
[[Category:Alumni of Lycée Descartes (Rabat)]]
[[Category:ESCP Business School alumni]]
[[Category:Cours Florent alumni]]
[[Category:Officiers of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres]]
[[Category:21st-century French women novelists]]

Leïla Slimani - Revision history

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