Nora Eldridge has always been a good girl: a good daughter, colleague, friend, employee. She teaches at an elementary school where the children and the parents adore her; but her real passion is her art, which she makes alone, unseen.

One day Reza Shahid appears in her classroom: eight years old, a perfect, beautiful boy. Reza's father has a fellowship at Harvard and his mother is a glamorous and successful installation artist. Nora is admitted into their charmed circle, and everything is transformed. Or so she believes. Liberation from her old life is not quite what it seems, and she is about to suffer a betrayal more monstrous than anything she could have imagined.

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About the Author
Claire Messud was born in 1966 and was educated at Yale and at Cambridge. She is the author of three novels including The Emperor's Children, a New York Times bestseller, and two novellas. She lives in Boston with her husband and their two children.

Reviews
Messud is a breathtaking writer ... a beautiful - and beautifully sustained - howl of fresh, fierce, furious rage. * Independent on Sunday *
Comedy, pathos, sadness: nothing seems beyond her. Her new book has all this-and more. The Woman Upstairs is not a pretty read, but that is precisely what makes it so hard to put down. * The Economist *
Messud's prose is a delight ... addictive, memorable, intense -- Lionel Shriver * Financial Times *
This is a faultless, suspenseful novel * Mail on Sunday *
An unnerving portrait of obsession that makes you nervous about your mousiest of neighbours -- Lionel Shriver * New Statesman *


Awards
Long-listed for Scotiabank Giller Prize 2013 (UK).



Book Information
ISBN 9781844087334
Author Claire Messud
Format Paperback
Page Count 320
Imprint Virago Press Ltd
Publisher Little, Brown Book Group
Weight(grams) 223g
Dimensions(mm) 198mm * 160mm * 22mm