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“A transgender former prostitute cleans up the fetid houses of the psychotic, the hopeless and the murdered. Sounds like some dubious TLC special, but it’s a fascinating bio of Sandra Pankhurst…Revelatory.”
People
Winner of the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Nonfiction
Winner of the Australian Book Industry Award for General Nonfiction
A New York Times Pick of True Crime Summer Reads
An ALA Listen List for Outstanding Audiobook Narration
Shortlisted for the 2019 Wellcome Trust Book Prize
Shortlisted for Australia's National Biography Award for 2019
An iBooks bestseller in Biographies & Memoirs
A BookRiot Pick of Best Audiobooks out of Australia
A Crime Reads Pick of Thrillers for Domestic-Suspense Lovers
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 that she has not put out for forty years. A man who quietly bled 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, this is also an affirmation that, as isolated as we may feel, we are all in this together.
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What an amazing audiobook. Just enthralling. The Sarah Krasnostein’s writing is absorbing and Rachael Tidd’s narration is gorgeous. The subject of the story, Sandra Pankhurst, is perhaps the most amazing and inspiring person you’ve ever not heard of. I was fascinated by her story and how well it’s told in this audiobook.
This is essentially two books intertwined. One is about a person who was worse than neglected as a child and never really fit in anywhere, including gender assignment. I think that this saga is the more horrific. The other is about the under appreciated services provided by those who are tasked with cleaning the aftermath of murder, neglect, and more. This is something that few people have to see and smell besides law enforcement and certain types of social workers. The amazing thing is how kind and empathetic Sandra is to the living and the stresses they face despite her own terrible history. I certainly don't mean that her employees are unkind, and I surely couldn't do their jobs. The book is well written, but also very difficult to read because of its content. People need to be aware of the long lasting harm done to some people and also of the incredible people who come in and clean up in unbelievable situations. I requested and received a free review copy via NetGalley. In 2020 I was able to buy a permanent audio copy and feel that the narrator is truly exceptional.
Rachael Tidd’s distinctive crisp Australian accent lends a tidy feel which is just what is needed for the delving into the disgusting horrors of the work of Sandra Pankhurst, an expert cleaner for hoarders, the murdered, and horrific neglect. Her reading is soft as she varies stories of sites of cleanups with Pankhurts’ own tragic story of growing a transgender youth adopted into an abusive home where she is often denied entry and food. Prostitution, drug, directing a funeral home, marrying into wealth, having a sex change and facing a terminal condition were Pankhurt’s apparent paths to normalcy, all of these have given her compassion and a sort of cheer for those with whom she works.
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