Another Bone-Swapping Event

by Brad Fox

Brad Fox takes us on a mind-bending exploration of meaning, matter, and plants, stemming from a 10-day trip that lasted a year, among Indigenous shamans in northeastern Peru.

In Another Bone-Swapping Event, Brad Fox  tells the story of a wild year spent stuck in the high jungles of Peru—living with a family of Quechua-speaking curanderos–traditional medicine practitioners—responsible for a 100-hectare stretch of jungle just outside of Tarapoto in northeastern of the country, four hours’ walk from the nearest dirt road. Following the practice and philosophy of the region’s visionary shaman Miguel Tapullimas, Fox takes readers on a labyrinthine tour of meaning and matter, navigating elementary metaphysics, the wavering ambiguity of phenomena, and the absurdities of the moment.


Through it all, the lush prose that made The Bathysphere Book so embraced turns this book into its own mind-altering experience because, with Brad Fox as our guide, we’re able to engage with mind-altering possibilities that we may never have considered before, all during peak Covid, when no one knew how our collective future might unfold.

Genres: Nonfiction

336 pages, Hardcover

Published November 4, 2025

About the author

Brad Fox's stories, articles, and translations have appeared in The New Yorker, Guernica, and the 2014 Whitney Biennial.

Reviews

[Jacob Brogan · Rating 2 out of 5]

It is hard to imagine a better premise for a memoir than being stuck in the Peruvian jungles doing drugs through the first year of the COVID pandemic. Alas, it is even harder to imagine a worse execution of that premise.

The whole business proceeds in a haze that is less drug-induced high than groggy hangover. Fox describes experiences and people that clearly meant a great deal to him, but he makes no effort to help us understand why they were so important to him (or even what they entailed). The Bathysphere Book — much of which he seems to have written during the period he describes in this volume — was my favorite book of 2023. This one just left me irritated and cold.

[CatReader · Rating 2 out of 5]

Brad Fox is an American writer; his 2025 book Another Bone-Swapping Event recounts how he took a trip to Peru to experiment with drugs in early 2020 and ended up stranded there for a year due to COVID lockdowns. I echo the sentiments of other reviewers who picked up this book due to its interesting premise and left disappointed - I wasn't looking for a detailed account of every day of Fox and his companions' drug trips and mundane conversations presented in stream-of-consciousness fashion - I was hoping for more synthesis, distillation, and crystallized insights. DNF at 62%.

My statistics:
Book 335 for 2025
Book 2261 cumulatively

[Irene · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having traveled in Peru & done some experimenting with plant medicine, I was intrigued by the premise of this book. It's hard to imagine ingesting psychoactive compounds multiple times a week for months and being able to write a coherent narrative about it afterwards, but that's what Fox has done. I was more interested in learning about the healer he worked with and his practice, and in the plants he used, than in the author's epiphanies while under the influence. I'm thankful there are people committed to carrying on the legacy of plant medicine and honoring the natural world in which they grow. I'm not referring to the psychedelics plants only. Understanding the healing properties of all these plants is valuable, as is preserving their habitat.

[Bonnie · Rating 2 out of 5]

After reading Fox's essay Notes from the Bathysphere, I went into this memoir ready to be pulled in. The premise is terrific—Fox spent a year in the jungles of Peru with his then-wife and a few others marooned by the COVID pandemic.Taking ayahuasca with the local family doctors, it seems the author was attempting to....what? Find himself? Resolve trauma? I'm sure the facts are in there somewhere, but the promising situation loses its story in a stream of self-important abstraction, unimportant details, and anecdotal bio-journalism that is interesting, but doesn't move the story along.

The author seems most comfortable describing things - the ants outside his cabin, the traditions of the "curanderos," and even the rats. . But otherwise, the narrative jumps from point to point, and we never really get to know anyone very well. Or care about them for that matter, as the book is filled about what everyone is doing but not in a way that is helpful.

I think Fox needed a better editor on this one. It's kind of a master class on what not to do. And an example of how hard narrative nonfiction and memoir can be, even for an experienced writer like this one.

[Gwyneth · Rating 1 out of 5]

Another Bone Swapping Event by Brad Fox
Review for Net Galley

I was not intrigued by this book. The drug stories, under the euphemisms of “medicine” and “diet” were rambling, tedious and repetitive. It was like reading something written while the author was in a drugged state. The author spent the year of COVID lock down in Peru and it seems in a constant state of dream land. It was incoherent and frankly, boring to read. The reasons for even a single star were glimpses of the Peruvian jungle, the life in the “shaman tourist industry,” and the descriptions of the plants.

[Christina · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is part Peru travelogue, part plant medicine drug trips, part mythology. The writing meanders and circles, often leaving off in the middle of a story or recounting a conversation. It's like someone half remembering dreams--if you can relax into it, well and good. If the spell breaks though you realize how rambling and navel-gazing it is.

[E H · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF. I stopped reading when I realized the actual timeline of events. The author and his wife went on a trip to Peru to do ayahuasca right before the world shut down in 2020? Per their own timeline, they had enough notice to cancel their trip? I just do not understand.

[Kellie · Rating 3 out of 5]

We read this for grad school. While the prose was lyrical, I had a hard time connecting to the narrative.