Written in precise, elegant prose, Garth Greenwell's Cleanness is an almost unbearably poignant book about a man whose life, like so many, has been transformed by the discovery and loss of love.

'This is an exceptional work of fiction, which places Greenwell among the very best contemporary novelists' - The i

Bulgaria's capital, Sofia, stirs with hope and impending upheaval. Soviet buildings crumble, unrelenting winds lash the city, political protesters flood the streets with song.

Amid this disquiet, a young American teacher prepares to leave the place he's come to call home. In a reflective mood, heightened by his imminent departure, he grapples with the intimate encounters that have marked his years abroad, each revealing startling insights about what it means to seek connection: with those we love, with the places we inhabit and with ourselves.

Chosen as a book of the year in the New Yorker, Daily Telegraph, Observer, New York Times, BBC, TIME and Irish Times.
A New York Times Notable Book of 2020.
Longlisted for the Gordon Burn Prize.

Garth Greenwell returns to the characters and setting of his beloved debut, What Belongs to You, in this deeply moving and elegantly written new book.

About the Author
Garth Greenwell is the author of Cleanness. His novel What Belongs to You won the British Book Award for Debut of the Year, was longlisted for the National Book Award, and was a finalist for six other awards, including the James Tait Black Prize, the PEN/Faulkner Award and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice, it was named a Best Book of 2016 by over fifty publications in nine countries, and was translated into a dozen languages. His novella Mitko won the Miami University Press Novella Prize and was a finalist for the Edmund White Award for Debut Fiction and a Lambda Literary Award. His fiction has appeared in the New Yorker, the Paris Review, A Public Space, and VICE, and he has written criticism for the New Yorker, the London Review of Books, and the New York Times Book Review, among others. He lives in Iowa City.

Reviews
Greenwell displays an extraordinary skill at handling time . . . A piece of bravura writing . . . A style that is both clinically precise and fiercely sensual . . . Exquisite -- Colm Toibin * New York Times Book Review *
A brilliant examination of love and intimacy -- SJ Watson * The Times *
Intense, emotional and super-sexy * Sunday Telegraph *
Greenwell may be the finest writer of sex currently at work. He is certainly the most exhilarating * Times Literary Supplement *
Radiant . . . compassion, that supreme quality in a fiction writer, is a main source of Greenwell's power -- Sigrid Nunez * New York Review of Books *
Incandescent . . . Greenwell has an uncanny gift, one that comes along rarely * New York Times *
This book is brilliant * Observer *
Cleanness is wise and illuminating . . . a talented writer of beautiful sentences, and an insightful guide to the strange ways people have of loving each other * Guardian *
Garth Greenwell has joined the canon of great gay writers . . . enthralling * Daily Telegraph *
Greenwell is a master of precision: everyday intimacy is so well wrought that it can feel unbearable to read, as if he cuts too close to the skin * Financial Times *
You should read this book because it contains the year's most thrilling sex writing -- Katy Waldman * New Yorker *
Greenwell is a great stylist * Spectator *
One of the more stunning accounts of sex in literature . . . One puts the book down, and the light feels a bit hotter and the heart stings more sharply * White Review *
Extraordinary . . . The range in these stories is part of their triumph and part of what makes their existential sorrow so profound . . . Incomparably bittersweet . . . Brilliant -- Ron Charles * Washington Post *
Garth Greenwell is an intensely beautiful and gorgeous writer. Most American literature seems neutered by comparison -- Sheila Heti, author of Motherhood
Stunning, provocatively revelatory and atmospherically profound. Here is love and sex as art, as pulse, as truth -- Lisa Taddeo, author of Three Women
An impressive book: moving, radical, both beautiful and violent, unexpected. Garth Greenwell is a major writer, and his writing provides us tools to affirm ourselves, to exist - to fight -- Edouard Louis, author of The End of Eddy
So rarely do words make comprehensible the inevitability and confusion of desire and determination as Garth Greenwell's writing does. Cleanness captures the indefinableness of pain and intimacy, love and alienation, vulnerability and sustainability -- Yiyun Li, author of The Vagrants
I don't know how Garth Greenwell writes such delicate, profane fiction. Reading this book made me want to sit with my emotions and desires; it made me want to be a better writer -- Carmen Maria Machado, author of Her Body and Other Parties
A novel of devastating honesty and beauty -- David Ebershoff, author of The Danish Girl
I loved Cleanness. It's a page-turning love story if you read it for that; it's a lambent, thought-provoking intervention on desire and others' knowability if you read it for that; and if you read it for both, you'll get the best of it. 10/10 -- Naoise Dolan, author of Exciting Times
An unbearably wonderful, eloquently sexual, thoughtful, emotional delight of a novel - Garth Greenwell writes like no one else -- Eimear McBride, author of A Girl Is a Half-formed Thing
This is an exceptional work of fiction, which places Greenwell among the very best contemporary novelists * The i *



Book Information
ISBN 9781509874675
Author Garth Greenwell
Format Paperback
Page Count 240
Imprint Picador
Publisher Pan Macmillan
Weight(grams) 160g
Dimensions(mm) 197mm * 131mm * 16mm