The Trauma Cleaner

By: Sarah Krasnostein

Narrated by: 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

loved it

beautifully written book. honest, deeply rich with poetic descriptions and admiring respect for the subject.

Amazing

A heart wrenching, yet inspiring and beautiful story of woman’s struggle to understand humanity. Narrated perfectly.

An absolute masterpiece

What an absolutely horrific story told with gorgeous prose. Love, love, love this book! Highly recommend.

Odd story to be so Heartwarming

oh my goodness, so this book gave me a great perspective on Transgender people. I'm from Kansas, which is pretty straight and narrow when it comes to these things, but oh my heart. This book is so good, I cried multiple times and laughed, and cringed. This book! You guys! Must read!

Beautiful read

I truly enjoyed this memoir. It was thoughtfully written and what a life Sandra has lead. Such strength and resilience!

Surprised by storytelling and queer history

This is not what you think it is. It’s a brilliant biography; it’s a nonfiction book about disaster cleaning; it’s a bunch of tender and brilliant profiles of people suffering; it’s a fascinating oral history of gay, trans folks and sex workers lives in 80s and 90s Australia. I honestly loved everything about this book, the storytelling is magnificent and there’s something for everyone. Such a worthwhile and interesting read.

Touching and beautiful

Sandra’s life story is heart crushing and uplifting all at once. Terrible and beautiful. She is presented as a lovely, resilient and unbelievably strong woman and it’s evident the author has an enormous amount of respect for her. One of my favorite books of the past year!

Enthralling

An exceptional rendition of one woman's tenacity, triumphs and truth. I couldn't stop listening to it.

I’ll be thinking about Sandra’s story for years to come

I Initially purchased this book because I’m also a cleaner. I’ve never heard of Sandra story or about this book so I had no preconceived ideas as to what to expect. Right off the bat I was grabbed by the story and related to it in unexpected ways. It was touching and beautiful, and I’ll be thinking about Sandra and her story for many years to come.

Highly Elevated Writing!

I admit I had a difficult time getting involved in this audiobook; but, once I did it was clear sailing until I finished. The narration was excellent! There was a bit too much graphic writing for my taste in one part of this novel, and that has left me wondering how I will ever get the scene out of my mind. Even so, I am glad I made the choice to read The Trauma Cleaner. I learned a lot about myself in this book!