​From Arizona to Bali to the wilds of Borneo, a thirtysomething grad student finds herself caught up in an emotional and sexual entanglement with her renowned PhD advisor.

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After a tumultuous early adulthood, Katherine Holmsen jumps into a doctoral program in anthropology to finally get her life together—and somehow ends up alone in the mountainous rainforest of Indonesia, beginning fieldwork with a remote community of hunter-gatherers. There among the Punan of Borneo, she bathes in crocodile-infested rivers, joins shamanic healing rituals, and runs barefoot through the forest after her research subjects, all as she reckons with how she lost herself in relation to the man she once believed would transform her life. 

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A visceral narrative that blends raw adventure with emotional vulnerability, Sleeping with Leeches traces how Katherine got to Borneo—recounting her brilliant, narcissistic mentor’s almost imperceptible pursuit during her early coursework in Tucson, her misinformed decision to follow him across the globe, and their charged encounter at a vibrant Balinese temple ceremony, where his intentions finally become unmistakably clear.

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Told with an ethnographer’s eye and flashes of dark humor, this memoir offers both an insider’s view of academia and a sharp critique of the unspoken cultural rules that entrap women—while also exploring the subtle and potentially dangerous fusion of intellect and desire.