The Barbarian Nurseries

BY THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLING AND PULITZER PRIZE-WINNING AUTHOR OF THE 33

‘A book of extraordinary scope and power’ Los Angeles Times

Araceli is the live-in maid in the Torres-Thompson household, just outside Los Angeles.

One morning, after an argument between the parents which turned physical, she wakes to an empty house – except for the two sons she’s never had to interact with before. Not knowing what else to do, she decides to track down their grandfather.

When Scott and Maureen return to find the children gone, they do what any right-minded middle-class parents would: they panic.

Caught in a spiral of guilt, they say things that aren’t quite true – and when Araceli is accused of abduction, a national media circus explodes, causing the Torres-Thompson’s carefully constructed lives to begin to fall apart . . .

‘As pacy and informative about the states of America as you would expect from a journalist who won a Pulitzer for coverage of the LA riots . . . Tobar is in total control of his material’ Guardian

‘A virtuosic and hard-hitting novel . . . Exposes disturbing and enlightening ironies about the perpetuation of both privilege and social disadvantage’ TLS

Tobar’s hard-hitting novel drills deep into LA’s hidden social and racial strata, and explores what happens when these carefully constructed lives implode Independent