And Now I Spill the Family Secrets : An Illustrated Memoir

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 visual 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 institutionalisation, 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.