Ronan and the Endless Sea of Stars
A Graphic Memoir
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3.0 • 1 Rating
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- $10.99
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
WINNER
Outstanding Work of Graphic Medicine (Long Form)
2023 Awards for Excellence in Graphic Medicine
Graphic Medicine International Collective
A graphic novel memoir recounting one parent’s unique and wrenching journey caring for a child with a terminal diagnosis.
When Rick and Emily’s infant son Ronan is diagnosed with Tay-Sachs, an incurable neurological disorder, they are faced with the practical and emotional hurdles of parenting and loving their son—despite the shadow of inevitable loss. Rick Louis narrates this original graphic memoir, with illustrator Lara Antal translating the space that Ronan occupies before, during, and after his life, using flights of fancy and imagination to express the bizarre, heartbreaking, and sometimes even silly reality of human beings suddenly trapped in an impossible situation.
Ronan and the Endless Sea of Stars is a story of warmth and of heartbreak—about finding joy in life, no matter how long or short that life might be.
FINALIST
Book of the Year
Best Adult Non-Fiction
2023 Excellence in Graphic Literature Awards
Pop Culture Classroom
NOMINEE
Best Presentation in Design
2023 Mike Wieringo Comic Book Industry Awards
Ringo Awards
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A couple navigate their young son's terminal illness in Louis's painful but spirited graphic memoir debut. Before marrying, the idea of parenthood daunted Louis, who wonders, "What if I couldn't protect my kid from all the dangerous, scary, sad things?" But when Louis and wife Emily bring home Ronan, Louis couldn't be more delighted. Ronan's "a pretty happy baby," but his parents notice he isn't hitting typical developmental milestones. Surpassing their worst fears, an ophthalmologist identifies signs of Tay-Sachs disease, a genetic disorder that affects nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord, and is normally fatal by age four. Tracking Ronin's prognosis, each page is freighted with unbearable foreboding. Louis darts forward and backward in time, pursuing echoes and themes as he tries to make sense of a senseless grief. His principal subject, though, is the joy he felt being Ronan's dad. Frivolous comic asides—dad jokes—dispense levity throughout, and Antal's art balances the lighter tone, sometimes to disarming effect, as when Louis pushes past a retail aisle of childproofing gear, realizing he won't need any. In this frank telling of a devastating ordeal, it's the beauty of the too-brief loving moments that lingers.
