A novelist followed her mother’s advice: The more you read, the freer you are

Leïla Slimani’s latest book, I’ll Take the Fire, is the third in a trilogy inspired by generations of her Moroccan French family. She is also the author of the bestselling thriller The Perfect Nanny. She’s pictured above in Paris on March 17, 2026. Joel Saget/AFP via Getty Images

Joel Saget/AFP via Getty Images

As a child in Morocco, novelist Leïla Slimani sometimes felt she lived inside a bubble: There were rules for behavior inside the