Juniper snares Teddy Wayne’s ‘sharply witty’ domestic thriller
Juniper, an imprint of HarperCollins, has acquired The Au Pair by Teddy Wayne, a “wickedly sly, sharply written” domestic thriller.
Editorial director Joanna Lee acquired UK and Commonwealth rights, excluding Canada, from Jim Gill at Felicity Bryan Associates on behalf of Jim Rutman at Sterling Lord Literistic. Juniper will publish the novel in hardback in September 2026, with export, e-book and audio in June 2026.
The blurb reads: “Steven Hammer was once a literary star. Now his career is floundering, his marriage to high-powered banker Lucy is crumbling, and the only bright spot in his life is Astrid, the Norwegian au pair who cares for their children – and reveres his neglected novels. But what begins as a secret infatuation soon spirals into a scandal that makes them both infamous.
“As a headline-grabbing trial captivates the world with a salacious story of sex, power and betrayal, Steven must confront the wreckage he’s created, and the deeper insecurities that fuelled it. Is Astrid an innocent young woman caught up in a case beyond her control, or a calculating femme fatale? And how far will he go, driven by desperation and obsession, for her professed love?”
Lee said: “Teddy Wayne is a singular chronicler of men on the verge, and I’m thrilled to be welcoming him to Juniper with The Au Pair: a wickedly sly, sharply witty domestic thriller about the costs of literary production, both cultural and financial, and what we’re willing to sacrifice at the altar of success. It’s smart, funny and utterly absorbing in equal measure and I can’t wait to bring this to readers in the UK.”
Teddy Wayne is the author of The Winner, The Great Man Theory, Apartment, Loner, The Love Song of Jonny Valentine and Kapitoil. He is the winner of a Whiting Writers’ Award and an NEA Creative Writing Fellowship as well as a finalist for the Young Lions Fiction Award, PEN/Bingham Prize and Dayton Literary Peace Prize.
A former columnist for the New York Times and McSweeney’s and a frequent contributor to The New Yorker, he has taught at Columbia University and Washington University in St Louis. He has developed films and series from his novels with Columbia Pictures, HBO, MGM Television and others.
Wayne said: “One of the subtexts of The Au Pair is the decline of literary culture in favour of more sensationalist entertainment. From what I can tell, this isn’t as much of a problem in the UK. You also seem to have staved off a few other pernicious social developments to which the novel glancingly alludes. Long story short, I’m delighted to be publishing this with Juniper and am simultaneously submitting my application for British citizenship.”
