Sarah Leavitt crafts deeply personal narratives through the graphic novel medium, often exploring the intersection of memory, family, and history. Her early work delves into the emotional complexities of familial relationships and illness, utilizing the visual language of comics to convey nuanced feelings and experiences. Later, she shifted to historical fiction, meticulously researching and reimagining the life of a captivating, perhaps apocryphal, figure. Leavitt's approach is characterized by a fusion of rigorous research and artistic interpretation, offering readers a compelling and visually rich exploration of the human condition.
"Agnes, Murderess is a graphic novel about the bloody folk legend of Agnes McVee, a roadhouse owner, madam, and serial killer in the Cariboo region of British Columbia during the gold rush."-- Provided by publisher
In this powerful memoir the the LA Times calls “moving, rigorous, and heartbreaking," Sarah Leavitt reveals how Alzheimer’s disease transformed her mother, Midge, and her family forever. In spare blackand- white drawings and clear, candid prose, Sarah shares her family’s journey through a harrowing range of emotions—shock, denial, hope, anger, frustration—all the while learning to cope, and managing to find moments of happiness. Midge, a Harvard educated intellectual, struggles to comprehend the simplest words; Sarah’s father, Rob, slowly adapts to his new role as full-time caretaker, but still finds time for wordplay and poetry with his wife; Sarah and her sister Hannah argue, laugh, and grieve together as they join forces to help Midge. Tangles confronts the complexity of Alzheimer’s disease, and ultimately releases a knot of memories and dreams to reveal a bond between a mother and a daughter that will never come apart.
What do you do when your outspoken, passionate, and quick-witted mother starts fading into a forgetful, fearful woman? In this powerful graphic memoir, Sarah Leavitt reveals how Alzheimer’s disease transformed her mother Midge―and her family―forever. In spare black and white drawings and clear, candid prose, Sarah shares her family’s journey through a harrowing range of emotions―shock, denial, hope, anger, frustration―all the while learning to cope with a devastating diagnosis, and managing to find moments of happiness. Tangles confronts the complexity of Alzheimer’s disease, and gradually opens a knot of moments, memories, and dreams to reveal a bond between a mother and a daughter that will never come apart.