Clean: A Novel

by Alia Trabucco Zerán

Names are important, she said. Your friends have names, don’t they, Lita? You don’t call them “girl” and “boy,” do you? Would you call a cow “animal”?

Words leave their mark, sketch deep lines that can’t be erased. Look at your own mouths if you don’t believe me. At the marks left by judgmental words, by the cruel and unnecessary things you’ve said.

But faces never tell the truth; don’t be fooled. Faces pretend, lie, fake, cover up.