"Las nerviosas," the debut book by Peruvian writer Rosa Chávez Yacila, has reached its third edition after months of praise from critics and readers alike since Random House first published it.
The book sells for 59 soles.
A shift for Peruvian autobiographical writing
In recent years, Peruvian autobiographical narrative has faced criticism for playing it safe. Many of those complaints were fair: the books were well written but conservative, telling their stories only halfway and out of fear. Such books often earned good reviews and critical praise, but that counted for little without word-of-mouth interest from readers, and many of them eventually ended up on bargain tables.
What the book is about
Chávez Yacila takes on a trauma inherited from the women in her family, an emotional pain that ends up shaping who she is. According to the review, her strength does not lie in exposing that emotional wound directly, but in how she works it into her interactions with her mother, her partner and her place in the world.
The book occasionally leans on overwrought language, including some excessive adjectives, when addressing racism and discrimination. Even so, the review argues that the book's real strength lies in the universality of its theme of mental balance. It would be a mistake, the review says, to describe it as a book about growing up in Lima's outlying districts, known locally as "los conos," since what the author describes could happen to anyone, regardless of their social background.
A wider problem in Peru
The review notes that the subject itself is not new: Peru is a country marked by the deterioration of its mental health. The author's achievement, it argues, is having addressed the issue without worrying about what others might think, and having done so skillfully, weaving in cultural references while also calling out the neglect surrounding the problem. The thematic interplay in "Las nerviosas" comes across as unhurried, the review says, because the personal experience at its core has been filtered through narrative layers that were not rushed. The review calls it a strong debut.
Correction on the print edition
The article also carried a correction noting that the print edition's headline had mistakenly described the book as autofiction. The correct term, it clarified, is autobiography.
