The Night Cleaner

The idea was simple: pack a suitcase, go to another city where you have no connections and try to find a job, anonymously. That was the idea that took Florence Aubenas - one of France's most accomplished undercover journalists - on a journey into the worst recession since the Great Depression. Day after day she searched for work, one unemployed worker among others, with no special skills or qualifications. She immersed herself in the crowd of job seekers, going from one employment office to another, eventually managing to cobble together a few hours working as a night cleaner on a ferry that crossed the English Channel. For many people the global financial crisis seems real enough but remote from their daily lives. They have little sense of what it really means to be unemployed in the midst of a recession. Florence Aubenas was determined to find out. This book is the story of her journey. The Night Cleaner became an instant number one bestseller in France and has subsequently become a bestseller in many countries throughout the world. Better than any academic treatise on the topic, this book shows what recession means today.

Preface vii 1 Scraping the Barrel 1 2 A Rush Job 13 3 A Lunch 25 4 The Beast 35 5 The Maid 47 6 The Advert 58 7 The Toilets 70 8 Teeth 81 9 The White Horse 95 10 The Union 107 11 The Leaving Party 116 12 The Barbecue Section 130 13 Passions 141 14 The Gang of Morons 152 15 The Picnic 164 16 The Spider's Web 178 17 The Job Train 194 18 The ZAC 206 19 Mimi 219 20 The Permanent Job 231 Acknowledgements 244