First published in English translation by New Directions in Oct. 2018. Listed in The White Review's Books of the Year 2019 by Francesca Wade. Listed in the Financial Times' Summer Reads 2019. Shortlisted for the Best Translated Book Awards in fiction 2019. Publishers Weekly Best Books 2018 - Fiction. Online excerpts published in Granta, TANK and the London Magazine, and an interview of Anne Serre in BOMB online. In *Paths to Contemporary French Literature* (Taylor&Francis, 2011), John Taylor writes that Serre's writing 'has impressed with its wit and precision ever since her lively first novels (...). Already varied in narrative structure from the onset of her career, her subsequent books have continued to move beyond classical storytelling to take on the form of monologues, suspenseful personal essays, or tales that shift like plays from tableau to tableau. A handful of themes recur and compel: lost love, the pursuit of genuine friendship, the inclination to solitude (or the desire to be with others), and the perception of certain events as "fate" as opposed to chance.'

In a large country house, shut off from the world within a gated garden, three young women responsible for the education of a group of little boys are hanging paper lanterns for a party. Their desires, however, lie elsewhere... Meet The Governesses: wild or drifting about in a melancholy calm, spied upon by Monsieur Austeur, fascinated by the ever more mysterious unfolding of events, like the charms and spells of a midsummer night's dream...