Crying in the Bathroom

A Memoir

in English, 256 pages,
Viking, July 12, 2022
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Growing up as the daughter of Mexican immigrants in Chicago in the nineties, Erika Sánchez was a self-described pariah, misfit, and disappointment—a foul-mouthed, melancholic rabble-rouser who painted her nails black but also loved comedy, often laughing so hard with her friends that she had to leave her school classroom. Twenty-five years later, she’s now an award-winning novelist, poet, and essayist, but she’s still got an irrepressible laugh, an acerbic wit, and singular powers of perception about the world around her.

Sánchez writes about an abortion she had several years ago. The abortion took place during an “incredibly terrible time,” as she suffered from a severe bout of depression, she told MSNBC host Alicia Menendez on her show, “American Voices.” “I am certain the procedure saved my life,” Sánchez said.