Clean - by Alia Trabucco Zerán (Hardcover)

About the Book

"A young girl has died and the family's maid is being interrogated. She must tell the whole story before arriving at the girl's death"--

Book Synopsis

INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER!

FEATURED ON NPR FRESH AIR, NPR WEEKEND EDITION, CBS MORNINGS, AND NBC THE TODAY SHOW

"A brilliant literary thriller." - NBC The Today Show

"A masterclass in suspense ... Extraordinary." - Paula Hawkins

"Terrifying, explosive and exhilarating" - Katie Kitamura

"A modern masterpiece." -LitHub

From a global star and International Booker Prize finalist, a razor-sharp, unforgettable novel about a maid who's seen too much and a family at a breaking point

A young girl has died and the family's maid is being interrogated. She must tell the whole story before arriving at the girl's death.

Estela came from the countryside, leaving her mother behind, to work for the señor and señora when their only child was born. They wanted a housemaid: "smart appearance, full time," their ad said. She wanted to make enough money to support her mother and return home. For seven years, Estela cleaned their laundry, wiped their floors, made their meals, kept their secrets, witnessed their fights and frictions, raised their daughter. She heard the rats scrabbling in the ceiling, saw the looks the señor gave the señora; she knew about the poison in the cabinet, the gun, the daughter's rebellion as she grew up, the mother's coldness, the father's distance. She saw it all.

After a series of shocking betrayals and revelations, Estela stops speaking, breaking her silence only now, to tell the story of how it all fell apart. Is this a story of revenge or a confession? Class warfare or a cautionary tale? Building tension with every page, Clean is a gripping, incisive exploration of power, domesticity, and betrayal from an international star at the height of her powers.

Review Quotes

Praise for Clean

"Riveting... Trabucco Zerán is masterful at plunging the reader into the murky depths of her characters' psyches and at rendering disquieting acts with sangfroid."-- The Atlantic

"The mystery surrounding the death of the girl is a powerful source of suspense. . . a novel more interested in both the power and limits of storytelling. Is it even possible for Estela to tell her story in a way that will compel those in power to listen? How are we revealed by the stories we choose to believe in, and the stories we turn away from?"--New York Times Book Review

"As taut and tense as the atmosphere in the house in which it takes place."--People

"Extraordinary ... There are so many sentences in this closely-observed novel where an image or comment suddenly swerves matters from the mundane to the revelatory... Clean is an intense novel about class and power and the kind of deep down rot that lingers, despite the most vigorous scrubbing."--Maureen Corrigan, NPR Fresh Air

"An extended, engrossing monologue that blends a taut mystery with a vivid account of the hardships of a servant's life in the home of the family for whom she works. . .Clean is a well-drawn character study whose sadness lingers in the mind."--BookPage

"Wonderfully suspenseful and endlessly entertaining."--Ms. Magazine

"Clean is the opposite of what readers will feel when they finish this. . .uncomfortable, fascinating, lovely, and affecting novel. . .Hughes' splendid translation assures it will resonate in many more places where people live with the alienation and superficiality of late-stage capitalism."--Booklist, STARRED review

"Propulsive . . . bursting with intrigue."--Publishers Weekly

"A rich and compelling read...Uncomfortable and provocative, Clean is a chilling account of one woman's struggle to find meaning in the menial, but also an indictment of a society's overreliance on the unacknowledged exploitation of its domestic workers."--The Financial Times

"Compelling, claustrophobic and irresistible, Clean is both a masterclass in suspense and a clear-eyed portrait of isolation and grief. Extraordinary." -Paula Hawkins, author of The Girl on the Train and Into the Water

"Alia Trabucco Zerán is a powerhouse. In Clean, she writes with deadly precision about class, power, privilege and family. The result is terrifying, explosive and exhilarating." -Katie Kitamura, author of Intimacies

"Clean is a mesmerizing shapeshifter--condemnation and love, both astonishingly true; griefstruck roar; and a mystery whose bewildering dimensions are impossible to look away from."--Megha Majumdar, author of A Burning

"What a spellbinding nightmare Alia Trabucco Zerán has written. A biting, addictive portrait of the rot 'good families' conceal." -Fernanda Melchor, author of Hurricane Season

About the Author

Born in Chile, Alia Trabucco Zerán is the author of a nonfiction book, When Women Kill, and the novel The Remainder, which was a finalist for the International Booker Prize and has been translated into eight languages.

Sophie Hughes is the translator of more than twenty books. She has been nominated for the International Booker Prize four times.