The Trauma Cleaner

De: Sarah Krasnostein

Narrado por: Rachael Tidd

Before she was a trauma cleaner, Sandra Pankhurst was many things: husband and father, drag queen, gender reassignment patient, sex worker, small businesswoman, trophy wife... but as a little boy, raised in violence and excluded from the family home, she just wanted to belong. Now she believes her clients deserve no less. A woman who sleeps among garbage she has not put out for 40 years. A man who bled quietly to death in his living room. A woman who lives with rats, random debris, and terrified delusion. The still life of a home vacated by accidental overdose.

Sarah Krasnostein has watched the extraordinary Sandra Pankhurst bring order and care to these, the living and the dead - and the book she has written is equally extraordinary. Not just the compelling story of a fascinating life among lives of desperation but an affirmation that, as isolated as we may feel, we are all in this together.

Winner of the Victorian Premier's Literary Award for Literature.

Winner of the Victorian Premier's Literary Award for Nonfiction.

©2018 Blackstone Publishing (P)2018 Sarah Krasnostein

An incredible story!

Sandra is a beautiful and brilliant human. So glad to have heard her story. The narration was very well done as well.

Simply beautiful

An amazing story, beautifully told, of a trauma and transformation and avoidance. I appreciate the unique story telling and narrator's perspective. Thank you.

Encapturing

Brilliantly written and excellently narrated. Sarah Krasnostein paints vivid and memorable pictures with her words. I will be haunted by Sandra's life for a long time to come.

Beautiful description of a life unseen

Immediately upon finishing this book, I texted my mom, my best friend, and my therapist to recommend it. It tells the life stories of Sandra, a woman who has lived enough lives to fill a library; she is an older Australian transgender woman who has worked a variety of odd jobs and found her own way in life.

Along the journey of this book, I felt like I was sitting just next to the author as she interviewed Sandra and those around her at job sites. The author uses this powerful metaphor of the filth of the past in hoarders homes and at suicide cleanups to gain a deeper understanding of how impossible it is to be a reliable narrator about ourselves.

Beautiful story, a MUST READ

I laughed, cried, cheered, celebrated, worried, cringed and wondered. I am in awe of how the writer took huge risks in crafting such a moving tribute to an exceptional and complex woman. I am moved by Sandra and her traumas and how she uses them to serve others -- and survive. Spell-binding!

Beauty is found...

First off, the folks saying they didn't expect this to be a story of Sandra's life clearly didn't read the Publisher's synopsis.
But more, Sandra's story is a story of trauma in itself, and how she uses the trauma she's been through to help others who are or have been suffering. She's intensely private, and yet bares her soul for the author, exposing her past without asking for pity, taking the consequences as they come.
The help she gives to those in need is often done without thanks, but she keeps giving it.
I can't say I admire her approach to her children and ex-wife, but I can certainly relate.
A wonderful read, and a tale that will stay with me for some time.

Bravo!

Candid. Thought provoking presentation of not uncommon but little known topics. My story was in there somewhere. Excellently narrated. I feel like I know, or at least want to know, these individuals.

Absolutely Captivating & Inspiring

I could not stop listening because I was so emotionally invested in the story.

Messy, but worth it.

The narrator is excellent and the writing is exceptional. The story is a little disjointed and all over the place but I enjoyed the messiness of the characters and the willingness of the author to process the complexity of their stories so respectfully. Shout out to Brenè Brown at the ending was an extra bonus-and I loved the breakdown of the concept of trauma, the trauma interwoven throughput the subtext and the ultimate delineation of trauma as both a metaphor and rigid truth.

Excellent

Narration and writing are beautiful. Story is absolutely compelling. Listened to it in a few days.