clean (alia trabucco zerán, tr. sophie hughes)

Clean is marketed as a literary thriller. Marketing it as a deep dive meditation on the inequalities of Chilean society probably wouldn’t be seen to be as effective. It tells the story of a cleaner, a 40 year old woman from the south of the country, by implication Mapuche, who has come to the capital and worked for the same affluent family for seven years. It’s a job that dehumanises her and destroys her psyche. She narrates the book, charting the family’s descent towards tragedy. Although this tragedy feels like something of a macguffin: the author’s real interest would appear to be the narrator’s gradual disintegration, as she yearns for the south she realises she has foolishly left behind.