- Alia Trabucco Zerán, Translated by Sophie Hughes
Download Cover

Clean

By Alia Trabucco Zerán, Translated by Sophie Hughes

‘A spellbinding nightmare … Addictive’ FERNANDA MELCHOR

‘Grippingly original, a book of intense power’ PHILIPPE SANDS

‘One of the most powerful voices of current Chilean literature’ EL MUNDO

‘Disturbing and commanding’ LALINE PAULL

The shockingly compulsive new novel from the International Booker-shortlisted author of The Remainder.

Clean begins with an inescapable fact: a girl has died. Told by Estela, a maid to a wealthy, middle class family who speaks to us from a locked room, we hear of her plight and the circumstances that led to this moment. As we enter into her account of her daily existence, we see how her apparently simple life begins to sour, but would that drive her to the unthinkable?

Disturbing and profound, Clean explores domestic work, class and violence, against the backdrop of Chile’s changing political landscape. This is one of the most daring and compelling thrillers in international literature.

‘Clean is the best book of the year. It is the novel of a vital and truly extraordinary writer’ LA TERCERA

‘Brutal, beautiful, feverishly propulsive, a novel to lose yourself in’ JENNY MUSTARD



Author: Alia Trabucco Zerán
Format: Trade Paperback
Release Date: 06 Jun 2024
Pages: 208
ISBN: 978-0-00-860794-4
Price: £13.99 (Export Price) , £13.99, €None
Alia Trabucco Zerán was born in Chile in 1983. She was awarded a Fulbright scholarship for her MFA in Creative Writing at New York University and she holds a PhD in Spanish and Latin American Studies from University College London. Her debut novel, THE REMAINDER was chosen by El País as one of its top ten debuts of 2015 and was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize 2019. Her non-fiction title, WHEN WOMEN KILL won the British Academy Book Prize 2022 and was shortlisted for the National Books Critics Circle Criticism Award, and film rights have been sold. Her new novel, CLEAN, was published in Spanish in late 2022 and is being translated into 15 languages. She recently won the Eccles Centre & Hay Festival Writer’s Award 2024 for her next project. She lives in Santiago.

‘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 -

”'Grippingly original, a book of intense power” - Philippe Sands, author of The Last Colony

”'Clean is the best book of the year. It is the novel of a vital and truly extraordinary writer” - La Tercera

'Told in the disturbing and commanding voice of a domestic maid, this gripping intimate story savages the status quo to demand a kinder world. Highly recommended' Laline Paull, author of Pod -

”'Brutal, beautiful, feverishly propulsive, a novel to lose yourself in. It leaves you angry, saddened, and completely mesmerised. I will read whatever Zerán writes next. Just stunning” - Jenny Mustard, author of Okay Days

”'One of the most powerful voices of current Chilean literature” - El Mundo

”'Overwhelming … tragic and essential” - El Mundo

”'Those who read Clean are met with life looking straight at them, stripped of any mask and without the option to look the other way” - El Diario

'Dazzling and overwhelming' Lina Meruane -

'With the strength of an indomitable voice, Trabucco Zerán creates […] a very lucid, ruthless and brutal novel' Federico Falco -

'An amazing novel, using the monologue of a woman whose only possession is her voice' Emiliano Monge -

'A novel that gives you no escape […] Acidic, intelligent, coherent and authentic' El Diario -

'A story of alienation and power' ABC Cultural -

'Full of powerful scenes that combine with incredible mastery explosions of language with implosions of plot and vice versa' El País -

'Clean is a tense novel, and Trabucco uses that carefully concocted tension to portray the everlasting class struggle' The Objective -