In this graphic novel memoir, Lisa Wool-Rim Sjoblom chronicles the search for her birth family. She was born in Korea and adopted by a Swedish family when she was very young. She grew up having extraordinarily contradictory feelings: being told she was lucky for being adopted, not belonging and wanting to know about her birth family, but never wanting to ask so she wouldn’t offend her adoptive family. She tried unsuccessfully to find her birth family as a teenager, but tried again between having her first and second child. With the full support of her husband, Richey, Lisa tries to navigate all the red tape surrounding the Korean adoption agencies. She faces contradictions and even outright lies at every turn. Who does she believe? How can she ever find her birth mother, her blood family?

Unsurprisingly, Lisa is now an adoption rights activist because of her experience. I was horrified and deeply disturbed at the revelations Lisa unveiled about the agencies unwillingness to cooperate with her, and the cover-ups and lies. Transcripts of emails and official documents prove this. All she wanted to know was the truth about her past – why was it so hard for her to get it? Why did she and her husband have to resort to detective work to find out to truth?

Richey proved to be a real MVP. Not only did he fully support Lisa in her mission, he acted multiple times on her behalf to reach out to agencies and people he thought would be able to help her. Nowadays I think it would be a no-brainer for married partners to support each other like this – but to read about it, matter-of-factly and with little fuss, was very encouraging to see.

Lisa is also an illustrator, so the art of this graphic novel was superb. It’s all rendered in a nostalgic warm brown sepia which recalls old documents and thin rice paper. Like ancient Asian art, the perspective is very flat, mostly on one plane without much depth. This allows the rounded figures and their emotional expressions to take center stage – and there are a lot of emotions, but it never feels overwhelming or melodramatic. Though there is at times a lot of text, email transcripts and documents are given their own special panels, and considerable efforts are made to ensure speech bubbles are spaced out evenly.

I have to say this is one of the hardest graphic novels I’ve ever read – but it was worth it. This eye-opening account of one woman’s quest to find her family roots after adoption reveals established, yet disturbing, practices that make it extraordinarily hard for adoptees to find out their own information. The art appropriately conveys all the complicated emotions involved without being too melodramatic. Highly recommended.

– Kathleen

Sjoblon, Lisa Wool-Rim. Palimpsest. 2019.