In the spirit of Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home and Roz Chast’s Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant?, Margaret Kimball’s AND NOW I SPILL THE FAMILY SECRETS begins in
the aftermath of a tragedy.
In 1988, when Kimball is only four years old, her
mother attempts suicide on Mother’s Day—and this becomes one of many things
Kimball’s family never speaks about. As she searches for answers nearly thirty years
later, Kimball embarks on a thrilling journey into the secrets her
family has kept for decades.
Using old diary entries, hospital records, home videos, and
other archives, Margaret pieces together a narrative map of her childhood—her
mother’s bipolar
disorder, her grandmother’s institutionalization, and her brother’s increasing
struggles—in an attempt to understand what no one likes to talk about:
the fractures in her family.
Both a coming-of-age story about family dysfunction and a
reflection on mental health, AND NOW I SPILL THE FAMILY SECRETS is funny,
poignant, and deeply inspiring in its portrayal of what drives a family apart
and what keeps them together.
Margaret Kimball is an illustrator and writer whose graphic essays have appeared in Ecotone, Black Warrior Review, Copper Nickel, DIAGRAM, and other outlets. Her work has been listed as Notable in Best American Comics and she's been in residence at both Yaddo and MacDowell artists’ colonies. Her illustrations have appeared in Smithsonian Magazine, Bravery, the Boston Globe, and many major publications. She lives with her family in Indianapolis.View all by Margaret Kimball
