TOtimes Books: Toronto author Nita Prose’s First Novel ‘The Maid’ is already being adapted into a movie

As a veteran book editor and ghostwriter, Torontonian Nita Prose says writing a novel wasn’t something she dreamed of per se, but after a chance encounter with a maid in her hotel room a few years ago, the idea for her first novel was born. Called The Maid, the novel was recently published by Penguin Random House and is being adapted into a movie starring Florence Pugh as Molly the Maid.

“I was staying at a London hotel, and one day after a meeting I returned to my room and startled the maid who was folding the jogging pants I’d left in a tangled mess on the bed (embarrassing!). The second I entered the room, the maid jumped backward into a shadowy corner. It occurred to me in that moment what an intimate and invisible job it is to be a room maid,” explains Nita Prose. “Simply by cleaning my room every day, this maid knew so much about me. But what did I know about her? On the plane home a few days later, my protagonist Molly’s voice came to me. I grabbed a pen and a napkin and wrote the prologue in a single burst. I didn’t know it at the time, but I’d just begun my debut novel,” said Prose.

To find the time to write her first novel, Prose would get up at 5 a.m. and squirrel herself away in her office (which she calls ‘The Cave’). “I love writing at this hour, when it’s still dark out and my mind is in a liminal state between waking and dreaming,” she says. “I find there’s something I can harness there that is untouched by the constraints and impositions of reality – for me it’s a creative energy that is fresh and free.”

Prose loves to people watch; a trait which helped her develop the characters for Molly the Maid, Gran (Molly’s grandmother), and hotel staff at the fictitious Regency Grand Hotel. “I’m an incorrigible people-watcher, and I admit to sneaking around various hotels, probably opening doors I shouldn’t. It’s amazing, though, how if you act like you work there, no one pays you any mind.”

Molly the Maid is an extremely diligent worker and a person who finds it easier to live by a set rule book rather than to improvise according to what life throws at her. Says Prose: “At times she can be socially awkward, and she has trouble reading social cues. Some of her co-workers at the Regency Grand hotel see her as different or “other” because she doesn’t always meet certain social norms. Her colleagues are very quick to judge and to make her feel like she doesn’t belong. The Maid is a novel about what it means to be the same as everyone else—and yet entirely different. I want readers to focus more on the first part and less on the second. My goal is for the reader to step into the experience of life as Molly the maid. I want readers to see from her point of view and to really live as her. If I’ve done my job right, then to live as Molly is to love her.

Prose certainly has done her job right! The Maid is an engaging book about a young girl with quirks (she often quotes her deceased grandmother in her head) who you truly come to love. When Molly discovers a hotel guest in his bedroom who appears to be dead, this is when the plot twists and turns begin. Did Molly the Maid kill the affluent hotel guest? Was there someone else hiding in the room at the time of the murder? This is a thrilling page-turning novel that you can’t help but read in one or two sittings!

The role of ‘Gran’ is yet another endearing character.

“Gran is an ideal matriarch, a woman who loves unconditionally and is a fierce and loyal protector,” states Prose. “She shares aspects of my own mother, for sure, and in some ways, she is my attempt to commemorate the best parts of my mother, who died a few years ago.”

Prose is also an avid reader who enjoys a variety of genres.

“When it comes to books, I’m an omnivore,” she states. “I read across many genres, including mystery. My favourite authors include Fredrik Backman, Gail Honeyman, Mark Haddon, Ashley Audrain, Lisa Jewell. Inspirations in terms of the mystery genre: Agatha Christie, the film KNIVES OUT, and the board game Clue.”

As a first-time novelist, Prose admits to being afraid to share her manuscript with others.

“I was thrilled that my novel was going to be published. While I was writing the manuscript, I was terrified to share it. I worried it wasn’t good enough and would be roundly rejected. When it wasn’t, I was so relieved and excited.”

But it gets better. Not long after The Maid was published, Prose learned that the book was being adapted for a movie starring Florence Pugh as Molly the Maid. Pugh is an English actress who gained recognition in 2016 for her leading role as a violent young bride in Lady Macbeth, winning a British Independent Film Award. She then starred in the 2018 films King Lear and Outlaw King and the miniseries The Little Drummer Girl. Pugh’s international breakthrough happened in 2019 with her portrayals of professional wrestler Paige in Fighting for My Family and for her role Amy March in Little Women for which she was nominated for an Academy Award. In 2021 she starred in the Marvel Cinematic Universe superhero film Black Widow.

“Florence Pugh makes the most unusual choices in her performances, and as such, she’s absolutely beguiling to watch in every role she plays. Molly is an unusual character already, so I cannot wait to see how Florence brings her to life on the screen.”

The Maid, a novel by Nita Prose is published by Penguin Random House Canada and is available at bookstores.

On Sale: January 4, 2022
Pages: 304
ISBN: 9780735241336
Publisher: Viking Canada
Format: Trade Paperback
Price: $24.95 CAD

Hardcover | $27.00
Published by Ballantine Books
Jan 04, 2022 | 304 Pages | 6-1/8 x 9-1/4 | ISBN 9780593356159

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