The Trauma Cleaner
One Woman's Extraordinary Life in the Business of Death, Decay, and Disaster
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
Winner of the Victorian Prize for Literature, Sarah Krasnostein’s The Trauma Cleaner: One Woman’s Extraordinary Life in the Business of Death, Decay, and Disaster is the fascinating biography of one of the people responsible for tidying up homes in the wake of natural—and unnatural—catastrophes and fatalities.
Homicides and suicides, fires and floods, hoarders and addicts. When properties are damaged or neglected, it falls to Sandra Pankhurst, founder of Specialized Trauma Cleaning (STC) Services Pty. Ltd. to sift through the ashes or sweep up the mess of a person’s life or death. Her clients include law enforcement, real estate agents, executors of deceased estates, and charitable organizations representing victimized, mentally ill, elderly, and physically disabled people. In houses and buildings that have fallen into disrepair, Sandra airs out residents’ smells, throws out their weird porn, their photos, their letters, the last traces of their DNA entombed in soaps and toothbrushes.
The remnants and mementoes of these people’s lives resonate with Sandra. Before she began professionally cleaning up their traumas, she experienced her own. First, as a little boy, raised in violence and excluded from the family home. Then as a husband and father, drag queen, gender reassignment patient, sex worker, small businesswoman, and trophy wife. In each role she played, all Sandra wanted to do was belong.
The Trauma Cleaner is the extraordinary true story of an extraordinary person dedicated to making order out of chaos with compassion, revealing the common ground Sandra Pankhurst—and everyone—shares with those struck by tragedy.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Sandra Pankhurst’s personal history is more than interesting enough to warrant a biography: she was a husband and father before transitioning and starting over as a wife and businesswoman. But this unforgettable book focuses more on Pankhurst’s unusual career. She leads a team of specialized cleaners who reclaim spaces marred by death, hoarding and other extreme (and extremely disturbing) events. Sarah Krasnostein examines Pankhurst’s proudest triumphs and most bitter tragedies to tell an empowering life story that celebrates the vital survival skills of perseverance and reinvention.
Customer Reviews
The Trauma Cleaner by Sarah Krasnostein
A great view into the lives of hoarders and of people who are sidelined. Good research technique. The aftermath of human trauma documented here. I recognized people like those I know and occasionally bits of myself although I’m not a hoarder.
Sarah Krasnostein has studied law and I know will carry her compassion and insight into her life’s work. Well done.