Review: Clean - Alia Trabucco Zeran - Translated by Sophie Hughes

 

Review: Clean - Alia Trabucco Zeran - Translated by Sophie Hughes - October 2024

This particular book isn't one I normally would have gone for but something in the blurb when it was offered as an ARC from HarperCollins NZ caught my attention and so I was like I am going to give it a go. The cover isn't much and again this is one of those books I can tell you that you shouldn't judge by the cover, but then again these are the sort of covers that come with the whole "literary fiction" genre. The book starts with us meeting Estella who is a maid for a wealthy family and we learn that the daughter has died when the daughter died, the family fell apart and so she speaks behind the locked door and tells us the story of her career and how she met a family, moved in with them and helped raise their daughter. Estella felt like a part of the family but in parts, you can see that the line between part of the family and an employee is often blurred. As this is a literary fiction tale and translated works, I did find it confusing in parts and to be completely I am still not quite sure what I read but what I can tell you is that what I read, I enjoyed and that this book surprised me with how captivated I felt as the writing just sucks you in like a vacuum. This is one time too that I wish I read Chilean and understood it as I would have loved to be able to read the original story as I assume some of the book etc would have been lost in translation.  If you get a chance to read Clean - even if literary fiction isn't normally your jam as it isn't mine - I would highly recommend that you give this one a go as you will be surprised with it, just like I was.

Amazon: https://amzn.to/3Z96AId