Wildfire scoops Wells’ ‘razor sharp’ début about a night-shift cleaner in an office block

Brandi Wells’ ‘razor sharp, off-the-wall’ début novel Cleaner has been signed by Wildfire, a Headline imprint.

Editorial director Ella Gordon acquired world rights from Kate Johnson at Wolf Literary Services, for publication in hardback, export trade paperback, e-book and audiobook on 7th September 2023.

In the novel, the unnamed narrator treats the office as her own nocturnal empire. The daytime employees have all gone home by the time she starts her shift, but she knows everything about them: their dirtiest habits, their secret longings, their email passwords.

The synopsis continues that she spends her nights wielding her influence without anyone noticing – leaving fibre-rich snacks to aid digestion for her favourites, salting the plants of her enemies, and subliminally sowing the seeds of good ideas by typing them in computer search bars.

When the narrator discovers the company is failing, and the c.e.o. may be responsible, she knows only she can save it. But as she becomes consumed by her mission to do so, she may risk losing her own identity in ways she hasn’t fully considered.

Wells said: “Last semester I taught an anti-work-themed class at USC (entitled, in my mind at least, ‘I Would Prefer Not To’). Academia and publishing often (implicitly and explicitly) encourage their participants to measure their value by what they’ve produced. I am constantly trying to undo this line of thinking. Cleaner was born out of this impulse and need. Though the book’s narrator is unseen by the daytime workers, she yearns to be appreciated and understood. Who hasn’t longed to matter?”

Gordon said she has “fallen in love with the tough, spiky hero of Brandi Wells’ début novel” and that “every draft has made me laugh out loud.”

“I’ve started feeling weirdly overprotective of her. What I admire most of all about Brandi’s writing is her ability to capture, with great wit and perceptiveness, a mood that I think many in our current era will relate to – the exhaustion of giving everything to a system that gives little in return,” she said. “I can’t wait for readers all over the world to experience the brilliance of Cleaner.”

Johnson commented: “Brandi’s writing always makes me laugh hysterically, grimace occasionally, and feel true pathos when I’m not expecting it. That I can relate to her refreshingly frank protagonist on both my most disgruntled and empowered days means she has captured what it is to be human, and I’m grateful to Ella and the Wildfire team for helping bring this story to life.”

Brandi Wells is the author of a novella, This Boring Apocalypse (‎Civil Coping Mechanisms), and several short stories published in Puerto Del Sol, Mid-American Review, Tri-Quarterly and more, as well as in her own collection Please Don’t Be Upset (Tiny Hardcore Press). She has an MFA in creative writing from the University of Alabama, and is currently a PhD candidate in literature and creative writing at the University of Southern California.