Brad Fox—Another Bone-Swapping Event

Advance copy: Backstories on books by NASW members

ANOTHER BONE-SWAPPING EVENT
Brad Fox
Astra House, November 4, 2025
Hardcover, $29.00
Ebook, $17.99
Audio book: $16.99
Hardcover ISBN: 9781662603167
eBook ASIN: B0DW3TXRQH
Audio ASIN: B0FFD371DF

Fox reports:

On March 9, 2020, I flew from New York to the upper Amazonian city of Tarapoto, Peru, with a mental health practitioner, a molecular biologist, and a New York City firefighter. My companions were students of Miguel Tapullima, a traditional curandero from the Quechua-speaking Nativos-Lamas community. I was joining the group as a somewhat skeptical guest. Our plan was to spend ten days gaining experience with plant medicines.

The Tapullima family land is deep within the Cordillera Escalera National Park, four hours’ walk from the nearest dirt road, essentially cut off from the outside world. On the fourth day of our stay, a park ranger appeared, informing us that Peru had declared a state of emergency in response to the COVID-19 pandemic: strict curfew, all domestic and international travel forbidden. The national park was closed, and we were stuck until further notice.

Finding myself in this peculiar situation, I dove into the work with Miguel, following him through the jungle, acquainting myself with plant remedies. I translated for biologist Szilvia Galgoczi as she compared the Tapullima’s healing methods to her own work on Huntington’s Disease. By the time I returned to New York—fourteen months later—I’d dieted (as the treatments through which students acquaint themselves with remedies are called) on eighteen plants.

My first work of science writing—The Bathysphere Book: Effects of the Luminous Ocean Depths, about the early exploration of the deep ocean—was somewhat of a surprise success. When Ben Schrank at Astra House asked my agent, Akin Akinwumi, what might be next, he mentioned the story of my time in Peru. Schrank’s curiosity was piqued, and they convinced me to set aside whatever doubts I might have and write the book.

If I’d known I’d stay so long, I’d have begun studying Quechua and acquainting myself with the region’s history and literature. As it happened, the book is a story of confronting the unknown and struggling to learn and make meaning as events play out. The book’s energy hinges on my greenness. It shows that your next project might arise from the most unanticipated circumstances.

Contact info:

• Brad Fox, +1 646- 532-7876, asdfox@gmail.com
  • Fox’s website: https://bradfox.org/
  • Instagram: @bradfoks
  • Blueky: @bfox
• Book:
  • Astra: Another Bone-Swapping Event
  • Fox’s website: Another Bone-Swapping Event
• Publicist: Alexis Nowicki, 734-474 5493, anowicki@astrapublishinghouse.com
• Agent: Currently unagented. (Akinwumi recently closed his agency.)

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