Marian Henley

FINDING THE LIGHT: A Mother’s Journey from Trauma to Healing (Andrews McMeel)

Expanding on Marian’s popular Washington Post op-ed mourning the overturning of Roe v. Wade, FINDING THE LIGHT is a graphic memoir describing the most difficult conversation Marian never wanted to have—the one with her teenage son about the two rapes she experienced before she became his mother.

Marian writes with delicacy, psychological acuity, and—yes—wit about what happened to her and how she came to evict “the burglar in her brain”—the dissociative states that made it difficult for her to sustain a relationship or imagine having a child. It’s for every reader who needs—and appreciates—a creative take on #MeToo and also those drawn to Alison Bechdel’s FUN HOME, Roz Chast’s CAN WE TALK ABOUT SOMETHING MORE PLEASANT?, David Small’s STITCHES, Craig Thompson’s BLANKETS, and other intimate, heart-stopping graphic memoirs that have endured to become classics.

THE SHINIEST JEWEL: A Family Love Story (Grand Central)

The Shiniest Jewel: A Family Love Story In THE SHINIEST JEWEL: A Family Love Story (Grand Central), Marian takes aim at her own life, describing the joy and madness of marriage and motherhood at age 50 in graphic-memoir form.

Praise for THE SHINIEST JEWEL

“A near perfect book.”  —Publishers Weekly

“Her dynamic narrative flows seamlessly and can be devoured in one sitting.  Spare, poetic storytelling conveys a tender, bare bones depiction of personal growth.” —Kirkus Reviews

“THE SHINIEST JEWEL is one of the most heartbreaking, funny, poignant stories I’ve ever read. Full of joy and hope, but without a shred of sentimentality, this memoir shot straight to my heart one moment, then made me yelp with laughter the next. The illustrations are simply brilliant. What a miracle of a book.”  —Lolly Winston

“[A] gripping graphic tour de force of love and death and family.”  —Seattle Post-Intelligencer

“Marian Henley captures the bittersweet longing of adoptive parents for the child they have yet to meet.  THE SHINIEST JEWEL is superb, a truthful and soulful graphic memoir.”  —Sarah Bird

“In THE SHINIEST JEWEL, Marian Henley wastes nothing in telling her rich and effective story with humor, wisdom, compassion, and grace.  Deceptively spare, her drawings show a clear understanding of anatomy, especially that of the human heart.”  —Carol Lay

“A fantastic book.”   —Pete Seeger

 

Author photo-Henley Marian Henley is a cartoonist whose strips have appeared everywhere from Glamour and Ms. to MAD and Heavy Metal. The Utne Reader wrote that the best of her strips “can stick in your brain for years, memorable as great movies or novels”; The Austin Chronicle described them as “a weekly pinprick of manic, disturbingly comforting comedy.” Visit her at marianhenley.com.