Undiscovered
“Undiscovered” by Gabriela Wiener is a thought-provoking work published by HarperCollins Publishers in 2023. This edition, comprising 183 pages, presents Wiener’s exploration of colonialism through her intricate family history, particularly her ties to both the colonized and the colonizer. Set against the backdrop of a museum in Paris, the narrative unfolds as Wiener confronts her complex heritage while reflecting on the pre-Columbian artifacts that connect her to her Peruvian roots.
Readers will find an intimate examination of family life and cultural heritage as Wiener navigates her father’s infidelity and her own polyamorous relationships. The story intertwines personal struggles with broader themes of race and identity, revealing the impact of her great-great-grandfather, Charles Wiener, an Austrian colonial explorer. Through alternating strands, the book delves into the legacies of abandonment and jealousy, offering insights into the author’s journey of self-discovery and the historical context of her ancestry.
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LONGLISTED FOR THE 2024 INTERNATIONAL BOOKER PRIZE
“An intimate story from the family archive that is also the infamous history of our continent.”–Valeria Luiselli, author of Lost Children Archive
Award-winning Peruvian journalist Gabriela Wiener delivers her stunning English breakthrough in this “appealingly raw” (NPR) and “incisive” (Publishers Weekly) work of autofiction that explores colonialism through one woman’s family ties to both the colonized and colonizer.
Alone in a museum in Paris, Gabriela Wiener confronts her complicated family heritage. She is visiting an exhibition of pre-Columbian artifacts, spoils of European colonialism, many stolen from her homeland of Peru. As she peers at countless sculptures of Indigenous faces, each resembling her own, she sees herself in them–but the man responsible for pillaging them was her own great-great-grandfather, Austrian colonial explorer Charles Wiener.
In the wake of her father’s death, Gabriela returns to Peru. In alternating strands, she begins to probe her father’s infidelity, her own polyamorous relationship, and the history of her colonial ancestor, unpacking the legacy that is her birthright. From the eye-patched persona her father adopted to carry out his double life to the brutal racism she encounters in her ancestor Charles’s book, she traces a cycle of abandonment, jealousy, and fraud, in turn reframing her own personal struggles with desire, love, and race.
Translated by Julia Sanches
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