On sale date: March 21, 2023
A debut graphic novel that poignantly blends memoir, magic realism, and graphic medicine.
Ephemera is a poetic and dreamlike take on a graphic memoir set in a garden, a forest, and a greenhouse. The story drifts among a grown woman, her early memories as a child, and the gossamer existence of her mother. A lyrical entry in the field of graphic medicine, Ephemera is a story about a daughter trying to relate to a parent who struggles with mental illness. Gorgeously illustrated in a painted palette of warmy, earthy tones, it is a quiet book of isolation, plants, confusion, acceptance, and the fog of childhood. Loewinsohn’s debut book is an aching, meditative twist on autobiography, infusing the genre with an ethereal fusion of memory and imagination.
Praise
"This imaginative autobiography uses the healing and growth of plants to explore childhood pains and memories." — The New York Times
"Loewinsohn debuts with an astounding graphic memoir of her coming of age amid her mother's mental illness. ... This powerful yet meditative work heralds the arrival of a promising creator." — Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)
"Loewinsohn's memoir [is] a sophisticated and picturesque exploration of the weights that adults carry with them from their childhoods, imprints and encumbrances that accompany them wherever they go. It's a reminder, too, of how people can reshape these burdens, using art and inventiveness to realign the past in relation to the present." — NPR
"Loewinsohn's debut [features] rich, textured, and emotional artwork. [She] resists the category of graphic memoir by switching between timelines and using the art to mirror the looping nature of memory." — Booklist
"The art conveys the wistfulness and longing of a child dealing with a profound and baffling loss, and a woman who is still seeking a way to connect with the mother she lost too early." — Graphic Medicine
Specs
- Pages
- 200
- Format
- Hardback
- Color
- Full-color.
- Dimensions
- 6.3" × 9.3"
- ISBN-13
- 9781683966906