My Cleaner

“My Cleaner is a moving, funny, engrossing book.”—The Observer

“Elegant, humorous and surprising, this is a classy performance.”—The Times

“Beautifully observed, intelligent and moving.”—The Scotsman

Ugandan Mary Tendo worked for many years in the white middle-class Henman household in London, cleaning for Vanessa and looking after her only child, Justin. More than ten years after Mary has left, Justin—now twenty-two, handsome, and gifted—is too depressed to get out of bed. To his mother’s surprise, he asks for Mary.

When Mary responds to Vanessa’s cry for help and returns from Uganda to look after Justin, the balance of power in the house shifts dramatically. Both women’s lives change irrevocably as tensions build toward a startling climax on a snowbound motorway.

Maggie Gee is the author of The White Family (SAQI isbn: 978-0-86356-380-5), which was shortlisted for the 2002 Orange Prize for Fiction and for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award 2004. She is the first female Chair of the Royal Society of Literature.