The Nanny Diaries

The Nanny Diaries is a 2002 debut novel by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus, written from the point of view of a young woman known only as Nanny (or Nan), a New York college student who takes a job caring for Grayer, the four-year-old son of the wealthy X family on Manhattan's Upper East Side. As Grayer's parents pursue their own interests, including Mr. X's extramarital affairs, Nanny becomes the boy's de facto mother while Mrs. X grows ever more demanding, piling on tasks that have little to do with childcare. The story runs from fall through spring and ends with Nanny being abruptly fired during the family's vacation in Nantucket.

At its heart the book is a sharp social satire of privileged Manhattan society seen through the eyes of the people paid to raise its children. McLaughlin and Kraus drew directly on their own experience, having worked as nannies for roughly thirty affluent families, and they use Nanny's insider vantage to skewer the materialism, idleness, and emotional neglect of the X household, contrasting the parents' indifference with the genuine attachment Nanny feels for Grayer.

A word-of-mouth phenomenon, The Nanny Diaries became a major bestseller, selling more than two million copies and being translated into more than a dozen languages. It was adapted into a 2007 film starring Scarlett Johansson, Laura Linney, and Paul Giamatti, and the authors returned to the characters in a 2010 sequel, Nanny Returns, set twelve years later.