A new housemaid begins to work at a house set in a suburb “like a film set”. She’s the storyteller, “It’s a story born of centuries-old tiredness and questions that presume too much”. She works for the senor and senora. She’s not been encouraged to use their real names. They, on the other hand, “were both incapable of getting my name out correctly”. Her name is Estela. She cleans, she cooks, she looks after the new baby, even though she doesn’t “have any experience with children”. Nevertheless, she looks after the child in a suburb where house after house is surrounded by electric fences, “not a soul on the pavement”. Actor, prisoner, housemaid. The child grows. The tensions rise. She decides to leave, but her mother needs money for her medical bills, she stays. Then the story becomes darker, the humiliations of being a housemaid running alongside a dog bite, a plague of rats, death, and chaos in the streets, “they want us to roll over on our backs.” Suddenly you wonder whether the housemaid is one of the ‘deserving poor’ or one of the ‘revolting poor’ ready to do what’s required for their own sanity in a world with all decks stacked against them. The story an accusation, an interrogation, that grabs you firmly by the neck and doesn’t let go until well after the final page. Clean by Alia Trabucco Zerán (translated by Sophie Hughes) is my new favourite book, by my new favourite author, and my new favourite translator.

Clean - Alia Trabucco Zerán (translated by Sophie Hughes) – published by 4th Estate

Steven Long