Sexographies

The English-language debut of renowned Peruvian “gonzo” journalist Gabriela Wiener, Sexographies is an eye-opening, kamikaze journey through the unexplored corners of human sexuality by one of its most exciting chroniclers.

In fierce and fearless first-person accounts, Gabriela Wiener records infiltrating the prisons of Lima, participating in sexual exchanges in swingers clubs, traveling the dark paths of the Bois de Boulogne in Paris to live with transvestites and prostitutes, undergoing a complicated process of egg donation, and taking part in a ritual of ayahuasca ingestion in the Amazon jungle. At the same time, she takes us on inward journeys, exploring themes such as immigration, maternity, fear of death, the loneliness of hotel rooms, ugliness, threesomes, the mysterious number eleven, and geographical distance from friends. Fortunately, this extreme gonzo heroine comes out unscathed and is able to tell her story. She does so with a sharpness and vision worthy of the best masters of New Journalism’s golden years. A reckless and exciting journey through the most savage side of narrative journalism.

“No other writer in the Spanish-speaking world is as fiercely independent and thoroughly irreverent as Gabriela Wiener. Constantly testing the limits of genre and gender, Wiener´s work as a cronista (which roughly translates, but is by no means a direct synonym, of nonfiction writer) has bravely unveiled truths some may prefer remain concealed about a range of topics, from the daily life of polymorphous desire to the tiring labor of maternity.”

—Cristina Rivera Garza, author of The Iliac Crest

"Reading Gabriela Wiener is a joy. Over the years, her work has made me cry, laugh, hurt, and most importantly, dream. Her essays are daring, intimate, and honest, containing the self-awareness of a poet and the sharp focus of a marksman. I'd follow her anywhere."

—Daniel Alarcón, author of At Night We Walk in Circles

“Gabriela Wiener writes about her adventures as a fledgling wild detective; her real and imagined illnesses; her numerological obsessions; her sexuality; and her life as a mother, a wife, and a nostalgic and furious Peruvian. In whispers and in laughter—and ranging from uncertainty to denunciation and from full-frontal exhibitionism to coy flirtatiousness—the author gives herself over to writing. The result is this insolent and amusing book: as journalistic as it is lyrical, by turns sad and delirious, and unforgettable throughout.”

—Alejandro Zambra, author of Multiple Choice and My Documents