"Forget the rock and roll, this debut is about sex, drugs and a serious obsession with cleaning." -ELLE
"[A] gem of a debut novel...funny, vibrant, and utterly unpredictable." -Service95
A disaffected young woman's work as a cleaner takes her on an increasingly surreal search for a creative fulfillment, gainful employment, and the meaning of life in this sharp, tragicomic debut-perfect for fans of Melissa Broder, Jen Beagin, and Alexandra Tanner.
A young artist returns to her childhood home, with a host of degrees and diplomas in her back pocket. But when forced to confront the reality that the world sees no use for her scholarly exploits, she must find a job-and quickly.
Overqualified, underemployed, and idle, she starts a job as a cleaner for a gallery, where she meets another aspiring artist-Isabella-and they begin a passionate affair. Isabella could not be more different from the cleaner: she's elegant, successful…and living with her filthy rich boyfriend Paul.
Isabella sneaks the cleaner into her life by hiring her to scrub the apartment she shares with Paul. Little by little, the cleaner relaxes into the comfort of her new surroundings. But when Isabella leaves the apartment one day and doesn't come back, the cleaner is left to decide whether to back to her old life-or stay and step into Isabella's. Jess Shannon is a writer from Birmingham UK and a proud graduate of the Warwick Writing Programme. She completed her MA in writing in 2021. She spends most of her free time at the theatre and hates cleaning. "Narrator Charlie Sanderson assures listeners that the unnamed protagonist of Shannon's electric debut doesn't take herself too seriously. Sanderson's comedic timing is sublime, lending a necessary self-deprecating air to the minxy anti-hero. This rudderless young woman is not easy to like but listeners will undoubtedly find themselves rooting for her, chaotic tendencies and all. The holder of many evidently useless degrees, the protagonist puts herself to work as a cleaner and drifts into a love triangle with her clients. Sanderson never falters in this sexy and scathing examination of post-graduate life, labor, gender, and the nearly orgasmic satisfaction of a nice, clean kitchen." "There's a delightful conundrum in the messiness of this slim, whirlwind tale about cleanliness."
