Blackouts

Blackouts centres on Juan Gay, an old man living in an isolated institution known as the Palace. He is visited by the unnamed narrator, nicknamed Nene, whom he met briefly about a decade earlier when both were patients in a mental hospital. Nene suffers gaps in his memory and turns to Juan as someone he can confide in.

Juan, who is nearing death, is preoccupied with Sex Variants, a 1941 medical study built on interviews with gay and lesbian people conducted by the journalist Jan Gay, and asks Nene to carry on unfinished work. Redacted excerpts from the study, together with historical photographs and illustrations, run through the book.